Trying to Escape
by roxymar
Summary: Orphans:bella, rose, and alice are running for their lives. the attacker would stop at nothing to have them. who is the attacker? what does he want? would anyone save them? warning:Contains strong language and some sexual content
1. Running

Chapter 1: Running

I'm running as fast as my feet can carry me. The only thought that ran in my mind, while my two best friends are running with me, is how the hell I got them into this.

Next thing I heard a loud *BANG! Behind me and then one of my friends hits the ground with a loud *thump

"Alice!!!" I screamed

"Keep running…" was all Alice said before I heard the next *BANG!

"Rose!!" I screamed again. This time I stopped running and turned back to my two best friends. I knew the second I turned around that I was going to die tonight on this road.

"Ha, ha, ha. So you decided to join our party?" he said while looking at me with terrifying black eyes. "I thought you would just leave them here with me, to enjoy their company" he said to me with a wink.

"Please, please just leave us alone" I yelled trying to drag Alice up to me and Rose.

"Why would I want to leave the three most gorgeous girls I have ever laid eyes on?" he mocked.

"Please, we won't tell anyone" I begged.

"Do you honestly think I care what other people know? I told you from the start, you will never live without me! Where in the hell do you get off thinking that you could leave me?" he yelled.

_Leave him?_

"Please I-I….." *BANG!

This time I felt a large, hot stab in my stomach. The pain was endless; I could not imagine anything else that would hurt me so much. Not the countless times I fell on my head or twisted an ankle could compare to this pain.

"You see, you and your two little 'sisters' are never going to leave me now, your girls are mine!!" he frantically said.

*BANG! *BANG! *BANG!

That last shot hit me in the back of my hip. Another hot scorching pain wrestled up my side. Looking at Rose and Alice I saw they were also screaming in pain. He must have shot the two of them as well. I was sobbing by now. My body is hurting so badly I could hear ringing in my ears. What hurt the most was the fact that that I put my two best friends through this. They did not deserve this.

"Oh god, please stop!" I faintly said.

"_Oh please stop! _Oh please yourself." He mocked again. "Do you think I'm done, puff, we just got started!"

*BANG! *BANG! *BANG!

That last shot hit me in the thigh. Another hot pain filled my body. Hearing Rose and Alice screaming made the pain even worse.

"Well what? Do you have nothing else to say?" he said.

I felt something pulling my ankle and suddenly sliding down the pavement. My stomach, hip, and thigh were excruciatingly hot. All of my wounds where beating to the sound of my rapid heart.

Then, _he_ began to spread my legs. He got on top of me and started breathing down into my neck and ear.

"You smell so good. Do you know how good you smell?" he asked. "ANSWER ME!"

"No" I said faintly, growing deeper and deeper into unconsciousness. I started fearing for the worst. I began to realize I could no longer hear Rose and Alice screaming anymore.

"Well you do, you really do." He said. "Your smell is so intoxicating" He began kissing my neck.

His breaths were becoming more horse. He started moving on top of me and shot pain throughout my stomach, hip, and thigh. I could even smell the burning of my own skin.

"I bet you're still a virgin" he murmured. "A girl like you would never give it up to anyone. You would just tease the ever loving shit out of them then leave them with their dicks in their hands" he was becoming angry.

"Please, just leave-"

*SMACK!

I felt his left hand slap me across my cheek.

"Don't beg anymore! I am going to do what I want and your begging is starting to annoy me. The next words I want to hear from you is 'don't stop.' Do you understand me?!" He said this as he plunged his hand to my aching stomach.

"Oh, don't stop" was all I could say. I could faintly hear the noise of sirens in the background. Hope started washing over me. If they were coming for us, we would be hard to miss because we were in the middle of the road.

"Yeah, that's what I want to hear from you. Now," He began unbuttoning my pants. He whispered in my ear while unzipping his pants too, "I want you to say my name…"

The sirens where close now. All I need to do is prolong this situation until the ambulance came, but then he interrupted my thoughts.

"Shit! That didn't take them long" he said. He was very upset now. "Don't you think for a second you and your friends are going to make out of this alive!"

*BANG!* *BANG! *BANG!

A hot sharp pain hit my chest. All of a sudden everything went black.


	2. waking up

Chapter 2: Waking Up

I woke up to the sound of my heart beeping on a monitor. I had no idea where I was or how I got there. Suddenly I remembered…

"Rose! Alice! Rose! Alice!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Shh, don't worry they are fine" a man said. "Please, calm down. You're going to hurt yourself."

A sharp pain was flowing around my body and I smelled the rust sent of my own blood.

"You see, you popped off your stitches. Nurse, will you please come here" he said.

"Oh god, what happened? Where are Rose and Alice?!" I looked at him.

"Don't worry. Your two friends are in the next two rooms. You're in the ICU of Mercy Hospital." He informed me. "You and your two friends are lucky to be alive, you know. Rosalie Hale suffered from a shot in her shoulder, thigh, calf, and stomach. She pulled through, so don't worry. Alice Whitlock got shot in the back, shoulder, stomach, and arm. She pulled through as well, so please don't worry. See you got it the worst. You got shot in the stomach, hip, thigh, and chest. Honestly, I don't know how you survived the ambulance drive, but you're a strong one. You've been in and out of coma since your arrival about three weeks ago. You all are very lucky though; given the circumstance of course, but all three of you girls will eventually make a full recovery. All you'll have to do is ignore the nasty scars, naturally." He gave me a shy smile.

"I don't know what to say" I honestly didn't. How could I think up of anything? "Thank you for saving my friends." Was all I could say.

"We have a great staff here, Miss Swan. Please, just let me and my staff take care of you and your friends. It looks to me that you're going to need to stay here for a while. Although I told you you're going to be okay, you three need some serious observation. Bad things could happen and we won't release you all until you've recovered. Understand me?" he said.

"Yes" again speechless.

"Okay, well my name is Dr. Carlisle Cullen. If you need anything, feel free to call on me" He said this with a warm smile.

"Thank you, but please, keep a close eye on Alice, she's allergic to stuff"

"Don't worry, your orphanage sent all of your girls' medical histories. Okay, well, going to do some rounds and will be back soon. Try to get some rest." With that, Dr. Cullen left

I just sat there for I don't know how long. Just sat there thinking about how lucky I am that Rose and Alice are okay. I wished I could see them, but I know I will soon. I don't know what I would have done if anything had ever happened to them. They were the only family I really had. We've know each other since we were young. Me and Alice where six and Rose was seven when we got to the orphanage. Ever since then, we were family.

"Hello Isabella. I'm here to change your bandages."

I looked over to see the most gorgeous guy I have ever seen. He was about my age, wild bronze hair, and an amazing body. He smiled at me

"Isabella, are you okay?" he said this because my heart monitor was running rapidly.

Embarrassed I said, "Oh, fine. You just startled me." I began willing my heart to slow down. "Not to be rude, but aren't you a little young to be doing this?" Hoping this would detract me enough to slow down my heart rate.

He smiled again. "No. My father is Dr. Cullen and he has me here working most nights. All I do is clean wounds and bandages and well, nurse stuff" he laughed. "I once told my father that I was interested in medicine and the next day he got me working here." He laughed

His laugh was amazing. His voice was like velvet and his smile sent chills down my back. Again, the monitor started seeping up.

"Oh, well I guess that explains it."

"Yeh…you sure your okay Isabella?" he looked at me questionably.

"Please, call me Bella. And yeh, I'm fine. You know, just sucking up all this information." I couldn't stop staring at him. He must think I have a staring problem.

But all he did was smile. "So, do you mind if I take a look?"

I couldn't help but get nervous. This gorgeous guy was about to touch me. "No, go ahead" I whispered.

He obliviously knew I was hesitant. "Okay, well, don't worry. I'm pretty good at this. Never got a complaint." He winked at me. "So, tell me about yourself so this won't be weird."

"Well" I began as he was beginning to take off my blanket. "I've been at the same orphanage since I was six years old. Meeting my two best friends, who in reality are more like two sisters" he peeled off the first bandage and I was about to look at the damage.

"Um, you shouldn't look at this. It looks a lot worse than it is and mostly just freaks people out. Try looking at the ceiling while you continue." He said.

"Okay" figuring his advice is good, considering the fact that blood makes me sick. "Well, I like to read…a lot. I always like to escape to an alternate reality where it's safe. You know, living through other characters?"

"Yes, I do" his velvet voice said.

"Well, honestly, I really don't know what else to say" I truly didn't like talking about myself.

"What type of music do you like?" he asked

"All types I guess. From classical to heavy metal. Actually alternative rock is probably my favorite" I said with a smile on my face.

"What's your favorite band?" he said while busily working on me.

"Ironically, I would have to say My Chemical Romance. After an event like this, well, their lyrics are pretty spot on."

He started laughing. "Funny, I know exactly what you mean. They are one of my favorites too."

"Nice to know we have something in common. So, why don't you tell me about you." I was really curious to know more about him.

"Well, my name is Edward. I was an orphan too and –"

"What? Really?" I was shocked.

"Yes, really." He laughed. "Did you think you where the only one?" he gave me an amazing crocked smile.

"No, but the way you spoke about your father, just well, with such adoration"

"Well, I was adopted by age four. So, Carlisle and Esme are really my mom and dad. I couldn't imagine anyone else. See they can't have their own children, so they adopted me and two others: my brothers Jasper and Emmett. Jasper is the same age as me and Emmett is a little over a year older." He said that with a smile on his face.

"Do they want to go into medicine as well?" I asked, still shocked he was really an orphan like me.

Seems we do have a lot more in common than I thought.

"No. Jasper is more of a teacher type and Emmett, is well, Emmett. I bet he has no idea what he wants to be." He laughed

I couldn't help but laugh too. His laughter made me happy.

"Almost done, so tell me about your parents, I mean if that's not a problem." Edward suddenly seemed to reject asking that as soon as he said it.

"Well, my real dad, Charlie, died on the job when I was only two years old. I don't remember much about him, but I knew he loved me very much. My mom, Rene, raise me alone for three years before she remarried. I really don't want to talk about the rest right now, if you don't mind." I said, suddenly I was swept with sad emotions.

"Oh, no of course. I'm really sorry, I should not have asked you that anyway." He said with loads of guilt.

"Don't worry about it" I was really miserable now.

"Excuse me Miss Swan. I'm Officer Webber. I need to ask you some questions regarding you attacker" said the man in the uniform at the door.

"I guess" I said. Edward was wrapping up his equipment slowly, so he could stay longer. He must have been curious who would hurt two sixteen and one seventeen year old girls. So, he stayed quiet.

"Miss Swan, do you know your attacker" Officer Webber asked.

"Um, well, yes I did." Unsure if I could really tell him my full story. I knew he was still out there and would find me and the girls soon enough. He would try to hurt us again…soon, and if I told on him, he might get even angrier.

"Please continue"

"Well, see-"

"Oh, HELLO! Miss Swan" said a mid aged man in a suit. "My name is Elijah Goodman, the governor of this wonderful state. I just heard the horrible story you and your friends have gone through. I just wanted to tell you that all of your medical bills are going to be taken care of. And anything else you need. Just say the word and it's yours. Wouldn't want you and your friends have any problems while dealing with this tragic event." Wow, he was nice…must be an election year.

"Excuse me Governor Goodman" said Officer Webber "but we are trying to get Miss Swans statement"

"Oh, Of course gentlemen, please excuse me for my intrusion. I just wanted to introduce myself" the governor look apologetic.

Right then a nurse came in with flowers. They were all shades of reds and dark purples. There was a card sticking out of it.

"May I see those" I asked. Truthfully, I didn't know anyone that would send flowers. Maybe the kids at the orphanage sent them.

The nurse came. I took the card and it said:

DON'T TELL ANYONE WHO I AM OR I'LL FIND YOU. TRUST ME, NEXT TIME YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS WON'T BE SO LUCKY. I'LL SEE TO THAT!!!

My heart began racing. I looked around the room with wide eyes. Everyone was staring at me as I started breathing out faster and faster. Too quickly, everything turned black.


	3. Scare

Chapter 3: Scare

I woke up to a pair of beautiful green eyes. They look worried and relieved when I stared back at them. I tore myself away from those eyes to look around the room; once I saw the officer I yelled at him "Go check on Rose and Alice!"

"They are fine Miss Swan." He replied a little coldly.

"I don't care what you say, just please go check on them!!" I was begging with tears spilling out my eyes.

"Bella, please, tell me why you fainted" Edward asked while the officer, the nurse, and Governor Goodman left the room to check on the girls. Leaving me and Edward alone in my room.

I didn't know how to explain my sudden panic attack. I also, didn't know if I was supposed to tell anyone about the note. I didn't want to piss him off even more, but I feel like I can trust Edward. The look in his eyes shows me he is sincerely worried for me. So without speaking, I showed him the note that was in my hand.

His eyes suddenly went from worried to viciously angry. He looked around the room then whispered to me, "Bella, we have to show this to the officer. We have to let them look after you and your friends. This sick son-of-a-bitch is trying to come back and get you." He said each work through clenched teeth.

"I can't" I whispered back. "This shows he knows where we are. He would notice if some cops where standing outside my room every night. He would know I said something." I started crying again. "He won't stop until he gets me. If I just give him me, he might stop attacking my two friends." Total sobbing by now.

"Bella, don't talk like that. You are not going to turn yourself to him. I am going to help you in any what I can. But I need you to tell me everything. I need you to let me help you." He begged.

"No. He's never going to stop. He's not going let this thing go. Even if we get out of here in one piece, where are we going to go? Back to the orphanage? Guess what, he knows exactly where that is. Sleep at the police station every night? No, we can't live like that. I won't let my two sisters live the rest of their lives in fear for something they have nothing to do with." I was almost yelling at him.

"Then tell me why you have some form of responsibility. Why are you blaming yourself? Who in the hell is this guy?" Edward was pleading.

"Miss Swan, your friends are fine. They are asleep in their rooms." Officer Webber explained. "I even have two other officers standing outside their rooms to make sure nothing happens, is that okay with you?"

"It's okay, but please promise me that no one will leave their rooms. Tell them to never leave them alone." I said.

"I can't do that. I can't unless you give me more information on your attacker and his motives" Webber told me.

"Our attacker knows me. He is a very dangerous man. He only wants to hurt me. He would hurt me by going after them. You cannot allow that! You have to watch them! Nothing can happen to them because of me!" again I said this in between sobs.

"Who is he to you?" he asked.

"I-I don't want to say." I whispered.

"Miss Swan, we cannot help you unless you help us. There is an attempted murderer out there, what if he attacks more girls? Would you like it if he hurt more people?" the officer was getting agitated.

"No, of course I don't want that. He only wants me and the one's I love." I explained. "He is not going to hurt anyone one else."

"Miss Swan, I promise. No one else will know who he is but me. You can trust me. I have a daughter your age; I don't want a guy like this free to walk the streets."

"I understand, but please understand this from my point of view. This guy is never going to stop."

"Well, since this was a brutal attacked against three girls. We have to presume some precautions" said Officer Webber clearly upset. "We are leaving officers outside this ICU all night, and I'll come back tomorrow if you feel like talking to me then. So, good night Miss Swan" He said this and left the room.

Governor Goodman looked at me and said, "If there is anything I could do for you and your friends, please don't hesitate to ask, you'll be hearing from me soon to check up on you." He smiled and left the room.

Edward looked at me with pain in his eyes. "Please, just tell Officer Webber want he needs to know. He looks like he wants to help you."

"I know, but hey, this has never happen to me before. So, I really don't know what I'm doing. All I know is that I don't want to put my friends in anymore danger then they already are. I mean, shit, they almost died because of me. They are in the next room, right now, in pain. They are suffering multiple gunshot wounds! All of this because of me! Everything! What the fuck do you want from me!!!!" I was yelling at him.

"I just want to help. I want to find this guy and put him in jail where he could never hurt you again." Edward stated, obviously strained.

"Why do you care so much? I bet you get a lot of girls here suffering from an attack. Why are you so invested in my case?" honestly, why did he care this much. We only met, what fifth teen minutes ago! He knows nothing about me.

"I don't know. I feel this-this need to protect you. I have never felt this need before. Normally, I just do my job and that's it. I don't really talk to any of them. But when I stare in your beautiful brown eyes…I just…I just know I want to help you." He said this while looking at my blanket.

What? did he just call me beautiful? Did he just say I'm beautiful? Has this guy ever looked in a mirror? He looks like a model and nicer then can be. And I couldn't be any plainer. Wow.

I felt the burning my cheeks; obviously signs of my embarrassing blush rising to my face. "Oh" was all I could say. Edward did something to me that I have never felt before. I have never really liked guys. All the guys that have ever asked me out (and I do mean like two) I never felt anything for them. But Edward's mere presents makes chill run up and down my spine.

"Well, please say something." He smiled slyly. "I just kinda said more than I should have and your only response is 'oh'" he laughed

"I don't know what to say. Thank you for the compliment." I looked at the same spot on my blanket.

He laughed that amazing laugh. "Okay" he grabbed my chin with his finger so I could look at him in his green eyes. "Please, let me help you."

"Okay, but I don't want you to feel obligated to do anything. This man is very dangerous. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I know you don't like anyone to get hurt. Your probably the most unselfish person I have ever met." He stated. At this moment I didn't realize how close his face was to mine. I could feel his cool breath on my face and his breath smelled so amazing. So, I smiled back at him.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to check you out Miss Swan" Dr. Cullen walked in with a huge smile on his face. "Edward, don't you have other people you need to check on?"

"Yes, just finishing up here." He said this to his dad, but he was still looking at me. This caused my cheeks to burn again.

"Well, after you finish Miss Hale you need to go home. Your mother would kill me if you don't get home soon enough for you to do your homework." Dr. Cullen laughed.

"I know." Edward looked at me again. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

I blushed. "Okay" seriously why does this guy get this kind of reaction out of me?

Edward laughed and left the room.

"Wow, I have never seen my son look like that before." Dr. Cullen smiled at me.

"Like what?"

"Total admiration. He looks at you like you're a prize. It's something I never seen in my son. He usually keeps to himself." Dr. Cullen was checking my chart while talking to me.

"I don't know why, he's beautiful." OMG did I just say that to his father! What am I thinking? I must be on some strong drugs right now.

Dr. Cullen was laughing hysterically. "Well, he'll love to hear that. But I'll let you tell him" he winked at me.

"Thank you" was all I could think to say.

"You're welcome." He smiled. "Try to get some sleep; your friends are out for the night, so you should be too. I'll be here until midnight then I'll be back by noon. If you need anything, you'll know where I am."

I wanted to say thank you again but I was falling deeper and deeper into sleep. He simply smiled and left the room. I fell asleep for I don't know how long until I heard someone coming through my door. The door screeching sent chills down my spine. The door fully opened. I knew it wasn't a nurse because she just left about five minutes ago, and they are usually very quiet. I suddenly thought: OMG HE'S HERE!

I felt him getting closer to my bed. This is it. He's going to kill me.

"Do you mind if I stay here with you?" that velvet voice said.

I turned around to see Edward standing in front of my bed. Oh thank God it's him.

"No, I'm glad it's you. I feared for the worst." Suddenly feeling totally relieved.

"Well, I'm glad you're happy to see me." He gave me a smile that could stop my heart. He started motioning towards the chair that was right next to my bed. He sat down and looked deep into my eyes.

"Get some sleep. I won't leave until I have to go to school, then I'll be right back. You'll be safe." He told me.

"Okay…thank you." I turned my body towards him to sleep on my side. Thank god I didn't get shot on that particular hip….It could have ruined the moment.

He grabbed my hand and interlaced our fingers together. I smiled and pulled our hands right next to my face; feeling his hands on my hot cheek. I suddenly felt very safe with him here. And I drifted back to sleep feeling totally safe


	4. About last night

Chapter 4: About Last Night

Hearing the beeping on the heart monitor was starting to get on my nerves. I wanted it to shut off, but that would mean I was dead. So, I quickly threw that idea out of my head as fast as I thought it. Suddenly, I felt a huge hand on my mouth! That stupid heart monitor was beeping faster and faster. I quickly opened my eyes, to see a pair of black eyes staring back at me. With a huge smile he said, "Miss me?"

Oh god, NO! Not again.

He raised himself on top of me. The pressure of his body was aching. My wounds were still raw. The stinging returned all over my body and I feared that my stitches may have come undone, again.

"Oh…you feel so good…and worm." I shuddered as he took off my blanket. "I know you're not wearing any underwear" he started pulling on my hospital gown.

I wanted to tell him to stop, but his hand was over my mouth. I struggled against him, but he was too strong. I didn't know what to do. He began kissing my neck; I started to breathe in the scent of cigarettes and cheap beer all over my face.

"You know you want the just as much as I do…I have always wanted this...from the very beginning" He began running his free hand up my bandage thigh. "You feel so good"-ouch-"…and tight"

I jerked as hard as I could away from him. "Wake up! Wake up dear" I opened my eyes to see what was going on. The voice was the nurse, she was shaking me awake.

"Oh dear, you where just having a nightmare." The nurse looked so worried. "Don't worry, hon. you're fine and safe here at Mercy hospital." She gave me a reassuring smile. I don't know why, but she reminded me of what a grandmother should be. She had white hair and warm winkles running down her face.

"Oh, thank god." I was shaking with tears running down my face. "I was so scared, it all felt so real" Truly I could still feel his hands all over me.

Thankfully, she didn't ask any questions about my nightmare. If she did, I would have lost it. But, all she did was give me a warm hug, while telling me everything is going to be okay.

It sucked but, earlier: when I jerked myself awake, I put a lot of strain on my damaged body. I winced. The nurse saw this and decided to give me some pain medication.

Whiling giving me something for the pain, she smiled down at me, "Awe, I could tell he didn't want to leave you"

I followed her eyes and then saw the note right by my pillow. I wonder how I didn't notice it before. Oh well, I picked it up and read it.

_Sorry I had to leave. I was going to wake you up, but you looked so peaceful. So I thought a note would suffice just fine. So, school ends around two-thirty then I have football practice until four-thirty. I'll see you right after. So, please, be careful. _

_-Edward_

Awe, he didn't want to leave me

This note right here proves that he really did come last night and to stay with me. That particular part of my night felt like a dream; Edward coming in the middle of the night to protect me. It just all felt too good to be true. But, here I am, reading a note he left me. Wow.

The nurse smiled at me. "He is a good looking one, isn't he?" she winked. "Okay dear, I have to get going, but if you start feeling any pain just let me know." She smiled at me and left the room.

I really liked her. She sincerely cared about me, not just saying nice things in order to make her job easier.

"Good morning Miss Swan" Dr. Cullen entered my room. "How are you feeling today?" he asked while checking my chart.

"Okay" I lied

"Well, looks like you had some trouble earlier. Nurse Boyd had to give you some medication for your pain. "

"I had a nightmare and woke up pretty fiercely. I guess I can't handle that yet." I said sheepishly

"Well yes, it seems so. Just be careful." He seemed to be genuine. He turned to look at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes. I know that look, I _have_ that look. I stared back at him when he started talking again. "You know…last night my wife went to check on our kids before we went to bed and noticed Edward wasn't there…Know anything about that?"

Oh shit, what do I say?

"Actually…I do. Last night Edward came here, but I swear, he just slept on the chair right there" I pointed to the chair at the corner of the room. "Nothing happened, I swear. He just held my hand while we slept."

Dr. Cullen laughed. "I know, glad you're honest. The nurse told us, so Esme wouldn't worry so much. Don't worry, she's not made. She actually wants to meet you." He smiled.

Dr. Cullen continued to look over my chart and make new little notes on it. "Well, I was talking with your friends and they miss you. So, since the three of you are healing well, I talked to the other doctors and we've agreed that you girls don't need to be in the ICU anymore. But you still need to stay here in the hospital for a little longer. Anyway, we decided that we are going to put the three of you in the same room."

"Oh my god!! Yes! That's great!!" I couldn't help myself, I haven't been this happy since…umm…forever!

"Glad your happy" Dr. Cullen said. "Some people are going to show up later and help you with your move"

"Does this mean I'm going to get a new doctor?" I really didn't want one. Dr. Cullen was the best doctor I have ever had. He seemed to be smarter than anyone I have ever met.

"Sorry, but yes. I'm only an ICU doctor. I don't really handle cases outside these doors, but don't worry, you girls will be taken care of just fine" he tired to give me a reassuring smile but quickly noticed I was still sad. "But who knows, maybe I'll stop by every once in a while to make sure everything is going okay"

That made me smile. "Thank you, I really do appreciate all the care you're giving us"

"I know" he smiled. "Well, off to rounds! So, I'm going to tell your friends the good news and you'll be able to see them before the end of the evening"

"Thank you. I really do miss them, you know, we have never been apart for more than a couple of hours, let alone over three weeks" I explained

"I guess you all have a strong connection. I'll be seeing you soon." With that he left the room.

I was left with my thoughts for a while. I turned on the TV, but nothing good was on. I was starting to get really board when the phone rang. I didn't know who would call me, but I was curious.

"Hello?"

"Bella, hi"

"Oh Edward, I got your note!" Thankfully he couldn't see me, I was bouncing in my seat…very much like Alice

He laughed, "Glad you liked it. I called to check up on you. School is out right now and I'm on my way to the locker room"

_Hmm, Edward in a locker room…_

"Oh guess what?" I asked with a smirk in my voice.

"What?" he sounded curious.

"Your dad knows you snuck out last night to see me" I informed him

"Well, that didn't take long" his voice was happy, then quiet "….oh shit!!" he yelled frustrated

"What?"

"Oh…my brothers are going to tease the shit out of me!" he explained

"Why?" I whispered

"They never thought I would sneak out of the house to see a girl in the middle of the night" he laughed.

"I guess I understand" truthfully, I didn't want to tell the girls about last night either, "You know, I don't think I want the girls to know either"

"Why? Are you ashamed?" he ask with humor in his voice

"Nope. It's not like that, it's just, trust me, your brothers cannot tease you half as bad as the girls would tease me"

"Trust me, you've never met Emmett. He could make a fish blush" he laughed

"I'll take your word for it" I laughed

"_Oh, Edward! Who are you talking to?"_ said a very deep voice

"Emmett I'm coming" he sounded annoyed. "Bella, sorry, but I have to go before I'm late"

"Okay, well, we're moving rooms today, so good luck finding me" I was happy on how coy I said it.

"I pretty sure I will, but I have to admit, I do enjoy a good hunt" he said. "I'll see you soon, Bye"

"Bye" I said before I hung up the phone.

I was in my silent room for a couple of seconds before I blurted

"Oh, no!"

The girls are going to be in the room the next time I see him. They are going to throw things way out of proportion. I know them; they'll embarrass me in front of Edward.

Just then, the staff of people that are going to move me walked in.


	5. Reuniting

Chapter 5: Reuniting

I wasn't the first person in the room. Right there, right in front of me was a smiling Rose

"Bella!!" she yelled

"Oh, Rose" I looked at her and noticed all the tubes and monitors all around her, I gasped. Then I couldn't stop the tears spilling out "I'm so sorry for all of this, Oh, God Rose I'm so sorry" tears were rolling downing my face

"Oh, Bella, don't cry" she started tearing up. "We're sisters. We protect each other. Don't worry; I'm just thankful you're still alive. You know they told me you got it the worst" she said this while whipping tears away from her face

"I'm fine though" I smiled at her. "I'm just glad you're okay"

"Better now that I finally get to see you" said Rose. "I didn't know how long it was going to take until I get to see you two"

"Where is Alice?" I asked

"Don't know yet, they said you were next and then they were going to get Alice" Rose explain to me while smiling. She was just as excited to see me as much as I was to see her. Looking at Rose smile made me at little envious. She is so beautiful. Here she is wearing no makeup and healing from multiple gunshot wounds and she looks like she could go out on the catwalk right now. I smiled back at her

"Rose I love you so much, you know that right?" I had to tell her

"Yes Bella I know. And I love you too, very much." She said. "And I'll tell you, next time I see that low life bastard, I'm going to kill him!" Rose sneered.

"Rose, you can't say that" I started feeling my tears well up again. "He's not going to come near you two again, I'll see to that"

"Bella, we are a family, we are going to look after one another. We are in this together" she looked right into my eyes when she said that

"HERE! HERE!!" came a pixie sounding voice from outside the room

"ALICE!! Alice, get your adorable ass in here" Rose screamed

"Sorry cuties, I didn't want to ruin this Kodak moment" she laughed. The nurse wheeled her in and set her up in our room. We all waited until she left the room before we began talking again. The nurse finally left.

"Oh Alice!" I started crying again once I said her name…seriously, I have never cried this much before, but looking at her started the water works fast. "Alice, I'm so sor-"

"Bella, enough already. Rose already said it. We're sisters, I'll gladly take a bullet for you….or four" Alice laughed. "Seriously, I love you so much, I'm just glad you're okay"

"Alice I'm glad you're okay, too" I told her while calming myself down.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt this, but Bella we need to seriously have a talk" Rose looked at me

"Spill it then" I told her while wiping the remains of my tears

"Why are we not telling the police who _HE_ is?" Rose looked angry

"If we tell the police he'll get even angrier" I told them "What if when he come back he-"

"Don't say that! Don't say _when_! He's never coming near us again. That's why we have to tell Officer Webber" Rose said forcibly

"Rose, I don't know. Look, _HE_ sent me flowers with a note! Here! In this hospital! We're supposed to be safe here, but he got away with it anyway. Look girls, he knows we're here"

I honestly don't know why they don't see my point of view

"Bella, we understand" Alice stared "But Officer Webber could help us. I was also talking with Governor Goodman, and told him how dangerous the orphanage can be for us. So, he offered to get us a nice house in the small town near here. Hey, there even is a local high school we could go to. Of course, there is going to be some favors we have to do for the governor…like tell people how wonderful he is and help with his campaign for the up-and-coming election, but hey, it's a pretty good trade, right?"

_Funny, I knew he was here to benefit himself. _

"Alice that seems like a good idea, but we need some stipulations. Like: we have to stay out of the media. I don't want us anywhere near too much publicity. I don't want _him_ to see us." I looked deep into their eyes

"Sounds good to me, I hate that fucking orphanage, I'll be glad to leave!" Rose said way too excited, might I add.

"Well, then it's settled. Right after we get out of here, we are going to move into a house in a small town." I said. "But, does that mean we have to go to school?"

"Of course we do, Bella" Rose said

"We're going to be seniors!!" Alice squeaked

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. I really don't know about going to public school" I told them

"Oh, don't worry. We're going to go to the same school as that hot nurse boy" Rose said

"You mean Edward, yeah, he's a total babe!" Alice said. "And he has it bad for Bella"

"I know right?" Rose stated as-a-matter-of-factly

I felt the blush run up to my cheeks. "How do you know?"

"Please, every time he came to see me, all he did was ask me questions about you" Rose winked at me.

"What high school are we going to?" I really wanted to change the subject off from me and Edward

"Forks High!!" Alice said, way too excitedly.

"When do we start?" I asked

"Not until the new semester starts in the fall. So, we have all summer to unpack and get used to the town." Rose said

"Well, seems like all is settled" I told them

"No, Bella. I didn't forget about whether we should go and talk to Officer Webber" surprisingly that came from Alice

"I really don't think we should" I said

"Please Bella, he could protect us" Rose is begging

"I just, I know this can't be over. I don't want to make him so angry to the point that he would do something rash" I told them

"We need to talk to someone, Bella." Alice said "I trust Officer Webber. He told me his daughter goes to Forks high too. He really does want this guy off the streets and to make sure we're safe from _him_"

"Okay, let's just wait a little longer, you know, get settled" I told them "Then if we still feel the need to still tell someone, we'll talk to Officer Webber. Deal?"

"Deal" Alice said

"Okay, deal. But we make our decision together. Next time me and Alice outvote you, the decision is going to be overturned"

I guess I really have no other choice, "Deal"


	6. phone call

Chapter 6: Phone Call

All of the excitement of seeing Alice and Rose again made me very tired. I know they were tired too because they stopped talking. Soon, I heard Alice's breathing getting even and Rose's hint of a soft snore started to rise, and then I too started drifting off to sleep. Right then I felt a soft hand on my arm and an intoxicating smell hit my nose. So I opened my eyes rapidly knowing who it was

"Hey Bella, did I wake you?" Edward was standing right in front of me

"You found me!" I said it in an enthusiastic whispered, I really didn't want the girls to hear me. "And no, I was drifting off to sleep, but wasn't there yet"

"Well, I'll leave you alone to sleep longer" he smiled.

"No!" I almost yelled "I didn't get to see you all day" I pouted, for some odd reason, I really did miss him today. It was odd because I still just met him and yet I feel some kind of pull towards him.

"I know, I missed you too" he winked at me, causing the stupid heart monitor to run rapidly "But I really do have to do my rounds, but I'll see you on my breaks and lunch"

"Oh, well I guess I have to settle…" I rolled my eyes at him.

He chuckled at my little attempt at flirting. Too suddenly he looked serious, "Before I go, I have to ask you something. Would your friends mind if I sleep here again tonight?" he leaned into me like he was telling me a secret

"No we don't mind, as long as you use protection!"

_OH MY GOD!_ My eyes snapped at Rose. I'm going to kill her

My cheeks started burning. "That's not what he meant Rose! Why don't you just go back to sleep" It really wasn't a question

"Emmett is still worse" Edward whispered in my ear, sending chills up and down my body. "Since that's settled" he smiled at Rose "I guess I'll just see you later" he reluctantly left the room.

"Bella! You slept with him already?" Rose said that so loud that Alice woke up in a frenzy.

"Bella, how could you have sex in this state? I mean, he's hot but damn…my wounds still burn too much to want to get it on" Alice waved her hand up and down her body. "I mean, you really do need to get laid, but at least wait until the stitches are out" she giggled

"WE DIDN'T HAVE SEX!!" I said a little too loud, causing the nurses outside to laugh. "He just came here around midnight to…kinda…protect me…honestly all he did was hold my hand while we slept!!"

"Chill Bella, we're only kidding" Rose could not enjoy this moment any more "But that might be the most romantic thing I have ever heard. Awe, I so knew he liked you!"

"Please guys, I just want to get some sleep. Can we talk about this later?" I begged

"Fine. But we are going to remember this conversation…" Alice stated while drifting back to sleep. Rose soon followed, with a smile on her face, might I add. Bitch.

"Whatever" I tried to start drifting off to sleep again. It took a while, but I suddenly felt my eyes closing in and my body easing into sleep

***

I had one of those dreams that you knew it was a dream, but couldn't wake up. I saw my mother in the kitchen frantically looking for something. I was about four years old, just watching my mother. She had long blonde hair, a thin frame, and beautiful blue eyes. Even though lately, the beautiful tent in her blue eyes started to glaze over.

She used to be a free spirit. She was careless, wild, and truly young at heart. Even though I was young, I had always taken care of her, especially since my dad died. I would go up to her and comfort her while she tried to sleep. I would make sure she got up in the morning. I even made sure she turned off the coffee machine before we would leave the house. Yeah, there was no doubt I was always my mother's caretaker. I never minded that, but lately her free spirit had quickly left her into almost non-existence

"Where the hell is it!" my mother frantically yelling while searching through the kitchen cabinets. And her face…she looked like something or someone was going to kill her.

"Momma?" I came in the door

"Bella, where is the damn whiskey? Huh, I can't find it and I know it can't be finished yet….I just bought it yesterday!" she looked at me with complete fear in her eyes.

"I think he left it in the living room, under the couch" I left the room to go and get it. When I got to the couch, it was right there. I pick up the bottle and noticed half of it was gone. I took it over to my worried mother

"Oh thank god, my dear beautiful Bella" she seemed relieved. She sat on the chair by the kitchen table. She put the bottle on the table and motioned for me to go to her. Once I reached her, she picked me up and put me on her lap. Soon, she started to cry in my hair.

I turned around to look at her. "It's okay momma, please don't cry" I started to stroke her hair. "Don't worry, its right here" I pointed to the half filled whiskey bottle. "Everything is going to be okay"

"Oh baby, I don't know what I would ever do without you" She looked into my eyes. "I love you very much, do you know that?" she asked while I wiped the tears from her cheek

I looked deep into her glazed blue orbs "Yes momma, I know and I love you too"

We stood there at the kitchen table just holding each other. My mother's scent was very soothing and she was so warm. We both looked up when the door opened…

*ring* *ring* what is that *ring* shit *ring*

"Hello?" my voiced sounded really raspy; I could still remember my dream clearly of me and my mother together.

"Bells, honey is that you?" I totally recognized that manly voice!

"JAKE! Wow, how did you get this number" I was totally excited, I haven't talked to him in forever

"Oh, Bells" I heard him sniffle. "Oh, I'm so glad you girls are okay" clearly he had been crying. "I just heard what happened to you today. Why didn't you get a hold of me?"

"Jake, I didn't know how to get a hold of you and you move around so much…and truthfully I was pretty pre-occupied with healing and all" I had to laugh at that.

He laughed to "Huh, I guess your right" pause, and then sigh "Oh, honey I can't believe this has happened to you. Are you okay? Are the girls okay? Did the cops catch that low life FUC-"

"Jake, Jake, it's all okay. Me and the girls are all here and doing just fine…Hey, we're even in the same room" he let out another sigh. "We are going to need some more time to heal here in the hospital though. Then, the governor 'of this wonderful state' is going to set us up with a house in a small town close to here" I had to laugh at that, might as well get used to sucking up complements to the governor for other people

"Oh, I didn't realize this was an election year" we both laughed, I thought the same thing when Alice told me that. "Bells, I sent in a request form so I could go down and visit you and the girls, but I don't know how long it's going to take. Can you find a computer and e-mail me your address once you're all set up"

"Of course Jake. You'll be the first one I send my new address too" I smiled; I really did miss _my_ Jacob.

"Good, I really do look forward to seeing you again too, maybe we could _play_ around like old times" he laughed, I could almost see him wiggling his eyebrows. I sighed though.

"Well, honestly Jake, I don't think I'll be _playing_ at all any time soon" I began feeling really depressed "After that last concert…I really don't think I have it in me anymore" I felt tears filling my eyes

"Oh, honey please don't cry" he sounded like he was upset too. "I was only kidding; we don't have to do anything that bothers you or the girls"

"Thanks Jake" I quickly felt a little relieved, and then Alice yelled "TELL JAKIE I SAID HI!!!' 'ME TOO!!!' Rose added. I laughed at my silly friends. "The girls just said hi Jake" I said while laughing at Alice who was jumping up and down in her bed like a little girl and Rose had a big smile on her face

"Well, you tell them I said hi back and that I hope they heal up quick." Jake started sounding happier

"I promise" I said

"Okay, well Bells, I really do have to get going, this call is long enough and I think I'm going to get in trouble"

"Okay Jake, I guess I'll just see you soon and please be careful" I always worried about him since he left

"Pa-Pa-Please Bells" he said that annoyingly "I'm the biggest guy here, no one can touch me" he laughed smugly

"That's not what I meant Jacob Black" he really knows how to piss me off

"Whoa chill Bells, you don't need to worry about me" his voice turned soft, "I'm the one who has to worry about you"

"Don't. We'll be fine. Just watch your back" I can't help but worry for him

"Well, don't forget to send me your address. Oops, got to go, my superior looks like he wants to kill me"

"Okay, Jake. Thanks for calling and I'll see you soon"

"Bye Bells, be careful" The phone went dead after that.

"Jacob checked in on us?" Rose asked

"Yep, he said he just found out about our…incident today" I informed her

"That's sweet, I miss him" Alice laughed "I still think he's in love with you Bella"

No this again. "No girls, I told you this a thousand times, me and Jake are just best friends."

"Who is Jake?" I turned around and saw Edward standing there

Is it me or did he just look a little jealous….


	7. Information

Chapter 7: Information

I looked over towards Edward. His eyes had some kind of fire in them that I have never seen since I've known him. I thought I might as well put his heart at ease.

"Jake is my best friend" I explained "We've know each other since before I met these two freaks over here" I pointed at the girls

"Hey, I resent that! Edward, you don't think we're freaks do you?" Rose innocently looked at Edward. Oh, no! I know that look, that's her form of dazzling. Rose is defiantly the most beautiful girl in the world and often got what she wanted out of boys

"Of course not girls" Edward laughed at them, knowing what Rose was doing. He looked back at me "Why don't you continue"

I blushed at all the attention. "My dad and Jake's dad were best friends. Whenever they saw each other they would have us with them. We just kind of hit it off and we never lost contact…he was really the only person I could stand to be around after my dad died. And he was really there for me when my mother…died too." Thinking back at it, I know if it wasn't for Jake, I'd probably would have joined my parents soon after my mom died, but I don't like to think about that

Edward noticed my face fall

"Oh" was all he said.

"Are you jealous of Jacob?" Alice said jokingly

I looked up at Edward, and just when he was about to respond Carlisle walked in

"Hello ladies…and Edward" we all giggled, I was just happy for the distraction. "How are you all feeling today?"

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Awesome as usual!" That last peppy comment was Alice

"Well that's great girls." He began looking over our charts. "Well, you all look great. It seems Dr. Sheppard is taking good care of you all." He smiled at us. "I have some news, since you girls are doing so well, it seems like you girls are ready to start your physical therapy sessions tomorrow." He almost looked excited

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously. Does this mean we need to learn to walk again, I thought I could just do that…now that I think about it…I don't think I've walked at all since the shooting...I started to panic.

"Well, you girls have been through lots of trauma. We are going to help you get back into 'the groove' of things, if you will. This hospital has a great physical therapy ward, they are going to have you work on all of your motor functions." He looked at us "Don't worry, this is a good thing. Once we get you all up and walking around without any signs of trouble or pain, the sooner you get to leave."

Well, I have to admit I'm excited about that part. I have always been a dependent person and I hated being taken care of. I, for one, cannot wait to be able to get up myself, dress myself, and most importantly: clean myself.

"That sounds great to me; I need to get the hell out of this bed!" Rose said with a huge smile on her face.

"Yey! After this we could start shopping for things for our new home" Alice was barely able to contain her excitement, she was jumping on her bed. Oh, how I hate shopping with Alice

"Well, girls I'm glad you're all excited." Carlisle really seemed happy about our reaction. "Just make sure you take this slow. I know you don't feel it much now because of all the medication we've given you but physical therapy could be very painful. Especially for Rose and Bella" Yeh, I figured. Rose got shot in her calf and thigh and I got shot in my thigh too. "So, please take it slow, okay" With that he gave us a warm smile and left the room.

"Wow" I was suddenly washed with waves of depression hit me. It's one thing for me to go through this, buts it's a total other thing for this to be happening to Rose, she didn't deserve it. I know for a fact that she is going to have the worst trouble walking because of the shot in her calf. Tears started pouring out of my eyes "Rose I'm so sorr-"

"Oh Bella give it a rest!" Rose looked up at me "I'm going to be fine, please don't start the water works now"

Edward was soon right next to me holding my hand, rubbing soothing circles around my palm. Okay, I started to feel better. I looked back at him and he was looking at me. He gave me a reassuring smile. "Bella don't worry. You, Rose and Alice are going to get the best help" he started to laugh. Wonder what that means. "You see" he continued "my two brothers got into some trouble three days ago" he winked at me. "Well, the court ordered them to do a hundred hours of community service, so my dad pulled some strings and was able to put them up in the physical therapy ward to fulfill their service requirement" I looked confused, he continued "See, my brothers are pretty big guys, especially Emmett, and they could lift about anything…and well the ward really needed extra help. So, me and my brothers volunteered to help you and the girls during your therapy sessions, but you have to have the sessions later on in the day, because we have school and practice. Is that okay with you?"

"Sounds good to me" I smiled; I really wanted to meet Edwards's brothers. "But what did they do to get into so much trouble?"

He laughed. "Well, Emmett has this way about him that brings peoples mischievous side out. It's like you feed off of his naughty energy and you want to follow him in whatever plan he has in mind. And this _skill _of his has a real effect on Jasper; you see Jasper seems to feed off of what other people are feeling like a sponge. And, well, Emmett somehow convinced us it would be fun to go seek into the local public pool and fill it with red food coloring. And not just any red would due for Emmett; he got the most blood stain red you could buy. Emmet thought it would be funny for people to show up to the pool thinking it was filled with blood…it's seems stupid now but it was really really funny back then."

Right then Rose, Alice, and I started laughing. I can't believe someone could think up something like that. I have to admit the looks on people's faces would have been priceless

Once Edward could talk again he said, "By the time we finished the cops showed up and caught Emmett and Jasper." He laughed again.

"Wait you said _us_ and _we, _does that mean you were there too?" I looked at him with a smile plastered on my face.

"Yeh, but the cops didn't catch me. I ran once I saw the lights from the police car. I run a lot faster then my two brothers, so I didn't get caught. Luckily though, my brothers didn't tell them I was there" He laughed. "Now they say I owe them…and being on Emmett's owed list is pretty scary…he'll find some crazy way for you to pay him back" I had to laugh at Edwards gorgeous face, he looked pretty frighten.

"Well, I am certainly excited to meet your brothers" Alice chirped in while still laughing

"Yeh, they're really excited to meet you girls too" His face became serious and he looked at me "They know about me being here at night and are going to tease us, can you handle it?"

I looked down to my blanket. "Only if you can." I really don't like being made fun of. I got it enough from the girls; I just hope Edward's brothers are not cruel.

"Well, I've lived with them for years and I still don't handle their bantering too good, but trust me, I won't let them embarrass you" those words seem like a promise

"I trust you" in more ways than one. I really can't believe how quickly I've fallen for this guy.

"Hello ladies, how are you feeling today?" In came Officer Webber.

"We're fine, thank you" Alice said, then looked at me.

"Well, I really don't have much time to waste; I just came here to see if you're ready to talk to me about your attacker?" He seemed serious

The girls just looked at me. "I'm sorry Officer Webber, but there's nothing I can say about _him_" the way I said _him_ made me feel like total hatred for the word

"I see." He was clearly disappointed. "Well, Bella could you please tell me exactly what happened that night, after three weeks, we still don't really have your statement of the…incident"

I thought about it for a while. I knew he knew what happened that night. I'm not a cop, but I know the routine. First they save the victims and put them up in the hospital if needed. Then they set up a perimeter in order to try and find the assailant (in this case: our attacker). After that, they go back to the 'scene of the crime' and try to gather all information while the 'scene is still hot'. I'm sure he questioned all of the people that were there during the shooting. This could only mean that he knows what happened already. If that's true, then why does he want me to tell him? Why does he want me to tell him things he already knows? Does he think he could really catch _him_? So, I bit my lower lip…I guess I might as well tell him what all happened that night my friends and I almost got killed.

**Much love, **

**Roxy **


	8. That Night

Chapter 8: That Night

I couldn't look anyone in the eyes, I hate talking about myself ESPECIALLY when a lot of people are watching me. Officer Webber was watching me with a pen in one hand and notebook in the other. Edward was there staring at me with so much intensity, it would stop your heart. I really didn't want to scare him away, but I knew if I would ask him to leave it would hurt his feelings. So, I'm stuck. I looked over at Rose and Alice and they looked back at me with a shy smile, encouraging me to continue. That gave me enough confidence. I took a deep breath; this is going to be intense. Oh well.

Might as well start from the beginning….

"Bella! Bella! Bella can you hurry up!" Rose was screaming at me from down stars.

"In a minute, I'm on the phone!" I yelled back then turned my attention back to the phone. "Sorry Jake, but I have to go to the sound check" I explained to Jacob Black, my best friend.

"No worries Bells, just hope you have a great set. Good luck and I'll call ya soon" Jacob said, sounding very excited. He always loved it when I played. He always thought that I'm a very private person and the only time I truly 'let loose' was when I played.

"Thanks Jake, I'll dedicate one to you and your boys. Bye" He said bye too just before the phone went dead.

"Damn it Bella, hurry up!" Rose screamed again

"OH hold your horses! I'm coming" I yelled back. As I was leaving my room, something strange caught my eye and I turned back around. I noticed that there was a black rose in between the all of the red roses that the orphanage sent earlier. But I don't remember there being a black rose in the middle before. I thought black roses meant a sign for death, but then why would the orphanage send us that? Maybe they didn't know what it meant and thought that it would go good with our theme.

See, the girls and I are in a band…well sort of. We don't really write our own music, we just _play _out our favorite songs. From old Led Zeppelin, The Doors, John Lennon all the way up to My Chemical Romance, Panic at the Disco, The Killers, Rise Against, and even Korn and Metallica (if where in the mood). Sometimes in-between sets (When the girls are tuning up the instruments for the next song) I would go to the piano and play classical, mostly Debussy (it would remind me of my mother, she used to play Clair de Lune in our house). But really, we don't consider ourselves a 'real band,' buts its fun to _play_ in front of an audience nonetheless. And they love us; whether it's mostly due to the fact that three 'hot' girls are playing or that we're really talented. But much to my dismay, we are widely popular on YouTube and MySpace, apparently Jacob has a bad habit of videotaping us and posting it. Since Jake left to Iraq, we would get someone else to record us, and then we send it to him, so he could still see us. Sadly, he would still post us, so that just started the circle again.

Anyway, it's only us three in the band and we get along pretty good. Rose plays the drums, Alice is on bass and I'm in lead guitar. Alice mostly sings, but ever since she got that bad reaction to peanut butter (found out she has allergies…who would have thought that) I have taken over for the past two concerts. I knew tonight might be my last night singing because Alice is pretty much all healed up. Truthfully, I'm glad, I don't really like the attention, even though they say I have the better voice, I just can't comprehend why they would think that.

"Bella, if you don't get your ass down here now, I'm going to drag you down by your hair!!" Rose really sounded serious. I knew deep down, she was just as nervous as me; she just likes to pretend she doesn't care.

"I'm on my way! Jesus Rose, clam down!" I yelled back, this is really getting annoying. I took the black rose from the vase and threw it in the trash can. Whether they meant it or not I didn't want a symbol of death in my room.

I walked down the stairs very slowly, so I didn't trip on the way down. I met a very angry Rose and an overly excited Alice bouncing around the orphanage.

"It's about damn time! Can we go now or do we have to wait for the roots to grow!" Rose looked right at me when she said that

"No, we can go now" I knew playing her off is the best way to piss her off even more. She humped and walked out, while Alice was laughing the whole time at our little episode.

When we got to the local recreation center, we set up sound and equipment (all products of donations from the orphanage and fans). We made quite of bit of money from ticket sales. We would keep a little for more updated equipment and give most of it to the orphanage. Before we knew it, it was time to start.

We could hear the crowd screaming and cheering. This was the biggest concert we've ever played. I looked at the girls. Rose was serine and clam, totally ready. Alice was jumping with excitement, scanning the crowd for any hot boys. I felt like I was going to throw up. The nerves never really leave until after the first song. But something about that black rose turned my stomach.

"I think we should leave" I turned to the girls

"NO!" they both said at the same time. "Bella, don't worry. Your great and everyone here knows it but you" Alice took my hand in hers and Rose took the other. We formed a perfect circle facing each other. And like our ritual before a concert, we dedicated our actions to: my mom and dad; Rose's mother and father; and Alice's' shoes (she never met her family and doesn't remember them).

Two hours later….

During our last song, I saw something strange in the middle of the crowd. It was a man, older than any of the other people in the crowd and was wearing a hooded sweater so you couldn't see his face. He was in the back of the center, just watching us. Not moving or following the music. I looked back at him and he noticed me staring. He took off his hood so I could see him. When I saw who it was my heart fell to my feet. I wanted to run away and never turn back. He stood up looking right into my eyes with a huge smile on his face. He was enjoying my suffering…he always had. In his hand was three black roses, right then I knew he must have snuck into my room and put that black rose there….Oh my god!!! _HE_ was in my room, no, OUR room!!!

Alice noticed my stillness and decided to continue singing the song off once I finished the chorus. Both Alice and Rose looked at me and knew something was terribly wrong. Only, we couldn't just leave without finishing.

Once we finished the song, the crowd went crazy. They started yelling for an anchor, as if they never wanted us to leave. I was in too much of a frenzy to care

"What's going on Bella?!" Alice was scared at this point. "I haven't seen you look that scared since you first came to the orphanage."

I was in too much of a shock to say anything. I started shaking with fear and Rose grabbed me in a warm hug telling me "Oh sweetie, please tell us what's wrong. I promise nothing bad is going to happen."

Rose was always the mother of the group. She knew when to be serious and all paternal, but she also knew how to comfort like a mother really would. Alice joined in on the hug, squeezing us harder together. Oh, I really love these girls…OH no, what if he hurts these girls….they are all I have in this world…

"We have to leave, NOW!" I yelled. "Please, we have to go far away. I'm so sorry, but we have to leave!" I was totally loosing it

"Bella don't worry. We'll go where ever you want for however long" Rose was trying to reassure me right when we heard…

"OH ladies! Please don't leave!" and there he was! Right there, in front of me and my sisters. He ran up to us so fast we couldn't move. He grabbed Alice and held a gun to her head. I froze

"Now, I want you two little fucking whores to shut the fuck up and follow me…or else me and this little pixie here" he licked her cheek and kissed it "are going for a lovely drive alone" He started rubbing himself against Alice. She let out a painful moan when he grabbed and squeezed her breast. She had tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Please, just let them go and I'll go anywhere with you…and do whatever you want" I said that last part so low it sounded like a whisper. But I knew he heard me.

"Oh Bella, don't worry. There will be plenty of time for that later" He winked at me. "But for now, I have to stash you girls away from everyone before someone tries to find us. Now, if you will, follow me" He motioned us to walk a head of him.

He led us to the basement of the recreation center. He threw us duck tape from inside him pocket. "Blondie, I want you to put this duck tape over yours and Bella's mouths" Rose did what she was told. "Good girl. Now I want you and Bella to take your shirts off" Rose and I just looked at each other. "I SAID TAKE OFF YOUR FUCKING SHIRTS! I'm sure you don't want me to kill this girl!" he motioned to Alice who was still in his arms with a gun pointed to her head. "We need to wait until most of the groups are gone, so we could continue you this party at a better, more private location. While we wait, I want some fucking entertainment." He licked his own lips. "Now take off your shirts or I'll kill this one and work my way up to blondie"

Me and Rose looked over at Alice. She was so scared and looked so little in his big arms. I can't believe this is happening. Why would anyone do this to us? We started taking off our shirts when he interrupted us. "Oh no my beautiful babies. You need to be a little slower than that. Come on. I had seen you girls tonight at your concert. The way you all moved and teased the crowd with your music…hmm it was so fascinating. I know you could do better than that." He sat down with Alice on his lap

We started taking off our shirts painfully slowly. He stared at us with a huge grin on his face. Then we heard Alice take in a deep breath that stopped my heart.

"Oh baby, I know it's big" he moved her on his lap. "But you shouldn't move too much or I'll mess up you pretty little jeans" Alice look horrified. I knew exactly what he was talking about. Clearly me and Rose were getting him hard

We continued to take off our shirts until it was over our head and on the floor. "Hmm. Bella you've grown to be a beautiful young woman. Your tits are even bigger than I thought they would be." He started licking his lips again. "I bet they would fit perfectly in my mouth" He looked at Rose "And your friend here looks like a fucking Barbie doll, by the way she looks, she's probably used to showing off her assets." I looked over at Rose and she was fuming. I knew what she was thinking.

A month before Rose's parents died, a young neighbor boy named Royce snuck into her house at night while her parents still out. He ducked taped her month and viciously rapped her for hours. Then he told her if she told anyone that he would kill her. She was only seven years old. She never told a soul until she told Alice and me (after knowing her for three years). She told us that no man would ever do that to her again. She would rather die than to let anyone force her to do something like that again.

Tears were rolling down our faces. We heard the groups of people talking and arguing which girls was the hottest up the recreation center. They were slowly, but surly leaving the center. I wanted them to leave soon and also wanted them to never leave. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to my sisters.

"Now blondie, I want you to unbutton Bella's jeans" Rose turned to me, sobbing. Looking at her face made me cringe. She never wanted us to see her scared, but now she just looks like a seven-teen year old scared out of her mind. She motioned to my jeans

"That's right. Hmm…Now I want, *hump*" My eyes shot up to him and noticed that Alice had punched him in his hard penis as hard as she can. He was on the floor gasping for air. Rose ran up to him and kicked the gun away from him and kicked him in the penis harder than Alice. I grabbed them and we headed for the stair

"YOU FUCKING LITTLE BITCHES!!! I'm going to get you" I heard him coming but was sent on getting us out of the house. Once we got outside, I panicked. I saw that there was no one around. Where did everyone go?

We started screaming, hoping someone would hear us. But everything was happening so fast and no one came in time. So Rose, Alice and I started running as fast as we could.

Next thing I heard a loud *shot* behind me and then one of my friends hits the ground with a loud *thump*…..

Everyone in the room was staring at me. Rose, Alice and I were crying. Recalling what happened that night made me realize how close to dying we actually got. I couldn't finish the story; I thought Officer Webber can figure out what happened from there.

"Well ladies" I looked up at Officer Webber through tears flowing. "I can't tell you how sorry I am that this has happened. But please, with the upmost respect: Tell me who he is" His eyes where pleading.

I looked over at Edward. His beautiful green eyes seemed darker, almost black. I knew this story would make him angry, I shouldn't have said anything.

As if he read my mind. "I'm not mad at you Bella" he took a deep breath. "I'm angry that this has happened to you all." He looked at the girls then at me. "I want to kill this guy with my bear hands. I want him to know what it's like to fear for his life before I finally show him for myself" I have never heard Edward talk with such venom in his voice.

"Now Edward, clam down" Officer Webber put a hand on Edward's shoulder. "Leave that to us. Now, Bella, I need you to tell me who he is"

Right then, all eyes were on me, again. I looked around and thought about the deal me and the girls made earlier.

"No, I'm sorry Officer Webber" I told him through sobs. "I can't put us through that kind of danger again."

"Bella, you're putting yourselves in more danger if you don't tell me" His voice was still pleading. He desperately wanted to find our attacker

"I'm sorry, but I just can't" I looked down at my blanket. Edward took my hand in his and began stroking my knuckles.

"Well, I see there is no reasoning with you" He looked just as angry as he did last time. "Just please call me whenever you need anything. Here" He began writing on his notebook "this is my personal cell phone number and house number. If anything goes wrong or even if you feel uneasy about anything…anything at all, please call me and I'll be wherever you need me" He handed the paper to Alice, who was closest to him

"Thank you Officer Webber. We'll definitely keep in touch" Rose looked over to me when she said that.

Officer Webber bid farewell, and left the room. Edward got up and before I could worry he leaned into my ear and whispered, "Don't worry Bella. I need to go home for an hour and then I'm going to come straight back. I promise." He leaned in and kissed my forehead. He let his lips linger for a while, but not long enough. I didn't want him to leave, but am happy that he'll be back to make sure nothing would happen to me or the girls.

"Okay, I'll be right here" I tried to laugh but my body wasn't having any of that

"Okay" he looked at the girls "See you soon?" It sounded like a question, but I knew he was just trying to be polite…what a gentleman

The girls just nodded and gave him the best smiled they could at the moment. Edward must have known we needed time alone because he closed the door as far as he could (the hospital wouldn't allow closed doors) giving us some privacy.


	9. Discussions

Chapter 9: Discussions

Sleeping in this hospital is damn near impossible. With all of the commotion going on outside the door and the constant nurses waking you up to check on you, it makes sleep excruciatingly difficult. I was in and out of sleep all night feeling completely restless. Throughout the night I was constantly thinking back about 'that night' and how close the girls and I came to dying a horrible and painful death. Around three in the morning, I woke up shaking. I stared looking around not really knowing where I was, when suddenly I felt pressure on my hand. I turned my gaze to a worried Edward

"Are you okay?" Edward whispered very lowly

"I think so, I'm a bit confused" I stared at him puzzled

"What are you confused about?" He asked, trying to keep his voice down so he wouldn't wake up the girls, who were sleeping just fine a few feet away from us.

"I don't know. I was dreaming about that night I described to Officer Webber" I looked down wondering if I was making Edward uncomfortable. He just nodded his head for me to continue. "I can remember everything so clearly. I feel like I'm still reliving it every time I close my eyes." Tears were starting to pool under my eyes.

"Bella, I'm here." He squeezed our intertwined fingers, in order to reassure me his presence. "There is no need for you to worry. I promise, nothing bad is going to happen to you. I won't let anything bad ever happened to you" He looked so sincere.

I felt my heart swell. "Thank you Edward" I said under my breath. I can't believe he's real. I can't believe that he felt enough for me in such a short amount of time. I looked back at his eyes, they were red. He must be exhausted. Poor guy, he's up all night with me, _then_ he goes to school, _then_ he goes to football practice, _then_ he goes to work here in the hospital, and _then_ he tries his hardest to spend time with me. After that long day, he starts it all over again. I don't know what to do. Remorse was suddenly spreading around me. I really felt bad that I keep waking him up in the middle of the night. "I'm really sorry I keep waking you up." My eyes still teary

My reaction made him chucked a little. "Don't worry Bella, I really don't mind. I really do like being here with you. Now, please go back to sleep"

"I don't know if I can" I told him honestly

"Yes, you can. Look" he scooted his chair closer to me. "I'm right here." He grabbed my hand and placed it on his cheek. "I'm not going anywhere tonight. I'm going to stay right here with you until morning" He looked at the clock. "Okay, later in the morning." He laughed

I laughed a little too. It was technically morning already, but I knew what he meant

"Now, close your beautiful brown eyes and try to get some more sleep. You have a lot to do tomorrow, remember?" I looked at him confused again. "The physically therapy starts tomorrow when I get back from school. It will take a lot out of you, so you'll need rest. And trust me, by the ways my brothers act…you'll need a lot of rest." He chucked to himself.

"I really am looking forward to meeting them"

"I know, and trust me, there really looking forward to meeting you and the girls" He told me. "Now, enough talking" He took my hand off of his cheek, "go to sleep" and he placed our hands on my bed.

I grabbed his fingers and interlaced them with mine. I then, pulled our hands closer to my face and placed it a little under my neck. I wanted to reassure myself that Edward was here with me. He must not have minded our new position because he didn't move. He just leaned back into his chair as we both drifted back to sleep.

I felt a pair on worm lips on my forehead. I immediately opened my eyes to see who was kissing me. When I looked up, I saw a beautiful sight

"Sorry to wake you Bella" Edward was staring at me, looking a little shy. "I tried to leave quietly, but I guess you caught me" he looked a little sheepish too…..

"Yeah. So, w-why are you leaving?" I yawned. I don't want him to leave already

He took a deep breath…I think he was relieved. Did I just embarrass him by catching him kissing me without me being awake? Nah. That can't be it.

"I need to go to school, remember?" He flashed me my new favorite crooked smile

Right then, that stupid heart monitor started speeding up. "Oh, yeah I remember" I desperately need some distraction. I think my heart is going to rip out of my chest. "What time is it anyway?"

He smiled at me amusedly. "It's 7:00am. School starts at 8:00am but I need to take a shower and get ready before I go to school." _Mmmm. Edward in the shower_. Right then, that stupid heart monitor was frantically beeping faster again. "Hey Bella, you sure your okay? It seems like your heart is beating pretty fast" He smiled down at me. Oh, he knows exactly what he's doing to me….

"Yep! I'm great; I'm just…excited…for the day?" I asked that last part as a question. How stupid am I right now?

Edward had a little evil smirk rising and if possible, that stupid monitor was beeping even faster. "Well, what to do about this?" he pointed to the monitor. Now I know he's teasing me. "Wait. I have a great idea. Don't move, I want to try something…"

He looked down at me from his chair and began to sit on his knees bending towards me. He was moving very slowly, making sure not to scare me. He looked deep into my eyes. His face getting closer to mine and I could smell his sweet breath flush against my face. I leaned into him as well. He tilted his head a little and I felt his warm lips brush against mine. This was a sweet chaste kiss. He leaned away looking right into my eyes, then he leaned to me again, this time the kiss contained a lot more passion.

The kiss felt amazing. This action did nothing for my frantic heart beeping on the monitor, but we both ignored the sound coming out of that damn machine. Our lips began moving together. I didn't want this feeling to stop, so I placed both of my hands around his neck pushing him closer to me. He seemed not to mind my assertiveness because I felt one of his hands caress my cheek and the other on the base of my throat. Longingly, I took one of my hands and put it to the back of his head, and I started pulling on his hair ever so lightly. I heard a low groan coming from Edward and he pushed himself deeper in the kiss. He then bit and sucked a little on my bottom lip. I have never felt anything like this before. I knew I wanted him and I could feel he wanted me in return. Edward started gazing his tongue across my bottom lip. I parted my mouth in order to give him better access.

Sadly, that set him off and he pulled out of the passionate kiss. He gently planted a chaste kiss on my lips once more and moved back to his chair. He still held my hand in his as he sat back down. We were both panting from the steamy kiss

"I'm so sorry Bella." He looked down. "I didn't mean to push you that far" He seemed ashamed of himself.

"Oh no, Edward. You did not push me to do anything." I made him come closer to me. "I don't know if you noticed, but I was rather enjoying it." I whispered to myself but he heard. I felt the hot blush on my cheeks when I looked back at him.

He brushed my hot read cheeks and smiled back at me. "Good, I did too" He let out a sigh. "I've wanted to do that for a while now" He then gave out a bigger sigh. "I'm sorry, but I really do have to go." He got up from the chair and planted another short kiss on my lips.

"Okay, I guess I'll see you soon." I reached up and made him kiss me one more time before he left.

He leaned into my ear and whispered "Very soon" He kissed my cheek and left the room.

Wow! Did that just happen? Did Edward really just kiss me? Not once but three times. I couldn't hide the smile that was planted on my face. Then I heard them

"Well, well, well." Rose was shaking her head. "It seems like I can't leave you two alone for a moment" She started making a clicking noise with her mouth

"Shut up Rose! Oh My GOD! Bella! How was it!! Did you enjoy you first kiss?" Alice was bouncing up and down in her bed.

I blushed even deeper. "It's hard to describe Alice. But I can tell you, I did enjoy it…a lot" I smiled.

"Of course you did! Oh, Bella I'm so happy for you. He's perfect and I can tell you already really like him and he really likes you too. And have you seen his ass? That guy is awesome" Rose laughed.

"Thanks, I really do like him." I smiled back at her, ignoring her bluntness.

"Good morning ladies" Dr. Cullen walked in our door. "How are you all feeling today?"

"Well, Alice and I are doing okay" Rose gave me a wink "And our dear Bella here is on cloud nine" I'm going to kill her. All the blood left in my system rose to my cheeks. I really hate it when I do that.

Carlisle laughed and looked at me. "Is that right?" He meant that as a rhetorical question and even if he didn't I was not going to answer that question to Edward's FATHER! He ignored my internal narration and continued, "Well ladies, you all seem to be doing just fine. My sons tell me they will be here at 5:00pm to start your sessions. I realize that the time is late, but I talked to them and they have ensured me that they will try their best not to wear you all out too much" He was serious and continued reviewing our sheet

I heard the two girls giggle at that. "No worries! We wouldn't mind being worn out." Alice explained gitty. She noticed the look I was giving her. "What Bella! OH COME ON! We have been in this bed for a little over four weeks now….we need a good work out" When Dr. Cullen looked at me, Alice threw me a wink and I totally got that innuendo.

"Great to see that you're up for the challenge Alice" he laughed "But I would like to warn you, off the record of course. " He gave us a stern look. "I know my sons very well, and I must say they could be _a_ _little_ _much_ sometimes and I want to reassure you, if they do anything that makes you ladies at all uncomfortable please don't hesitate to let me know. They are doing this because of their _behavior_ last week and I don't want them to half fast their punishment"

"Don't worry, Dr. Cullen-"

"Please, call me Carlisle. I know it's a bit informal, but since you'll be spending a lot of time with my family, I figured formality should be the last thing we need to worry about" He explained.

"Okay Carlisle. Don't worry, Edward told me he would keep his brothers in check." I told him

He smiled. "Yes, I do know that Edward would make sure nothing bad will happen to you ladies. And I guarantee you they would never do anything to hurt any of you. My sons are great, noble people" He looked at all of us. "It's just…they tend to act like...well….teenagers" he seemed to be struggling for words to describe his sons. "Not in a bad way, just….okay…Emmett could be a little much sometimes and I don't want him to offend any of you" He put his head down

"Like Bella said, don't worry. We could handle them." Rose looked at Carlisle. "We could dish out anything with the best of em' and I'm sure this 'Emmett' won't know what hit him" she smiled at herself.

"Well, I do not underestimate you ladies' stamina, but I am glad to hear that" He looked down at our charts. "Well, since your all doing fine with your medications, I going to head out to my other patients and I strongly suggest you all get some rest. You haven't really walked since the incident and I don't want any of you to get overwhelmed." With that he smiled and left the room.

"Soooooo, Bella, about that kiss. How did his tongue feel in you mout-"

"Oh god Alice, I don't want to talk about that" I put my head in my pillows

"Oh come on Bell!" Rose was getting agitated. "Why are you being so difficult? It was your first kiss and from what I saw, it was pretty steamy." She smiled "You should want talk to us about it! You should want to dish out these new feelings you're having"

I knew Rose was the oldest and that she would know more about this stuff then me, but I don't think I really want to talk too much about Edward and our….relationship? If that's what it is. I really don't know what _it_ is that we're talking about. I'm confused. I really don't want to get my hopes up for something that might not even work out…I mean, he's a god and I'm just some damaged orphan

"Girls, I know you want details…it's just, I don't want to jinx anything" They looked confused. "I mean, he's way out of my league and I'm jus-"

"Bella! Enough of this insecure shit! I mean it! Who do you think you're fooling?" Rose looked at me straight in the eyes "You've been signing this tune for far too long. GUYS LIKE YOU BELLA! They always have. You're the one that turns _them_ down remember? I can give you a list of guys in the bands we would front run for that asked you out. You're the one that doesn't go out with them!" she was really on a roll and I didn't dare interrupt one of Rose's rampages "You're a beautiful girl, inside and out! You're completely selfless and caring. You have the best sense of humor and totally intelligent. I mean, who else would rather stay home and read instead of going out to an after (concert) party? Not just that but, you also have the most wonderful skin I have ever seen and your pouty lips are adorable! Stop fucking tearing yourself up!" She was out of breath

"I'm so sorry Rose, I know this upsets you, but I can't help it" Tears started forming in my eyes "I was raised with someone that told me I was a worthless whore and that no one would ever love a piece of shit like me. That I'm so worthless, my own parents would rather die than to stay with me!" tears where spilling all around me "How could I believe all of the good stuff you say about me when all of this bad stuff was melted into my brain? Huh? I don't know how to get over this. How could Edward want someone like me when he could probably have anyone he wants?" Realization was starting to hit me, hard. "Once he finds that out, he'll leave me. He'll just dump me off like everyone else in my life" I was totally sobbing. I knew everything I said was true. Edward was too good for me. Not only is he beautiful but he's smart and caring and charming and everything any girl would want. How can I be so stupid in thinking he could really want me.

"Oh sweetie" I could tell that Rose wanted to come and huge me, but she couldn't get out of her bed yet. "Don't believe all those negative things about you" She had tears in her eyes too and I looked over at Alice and she was crying as well. "Sweetie, all of those things ever said about you are not true. I know that for a fact. I mean, Alice and I are never going to leave you. We love you very much Bella. We are family. We are all we have in this fucked up world. And sweetie, that's all we need." I looked up at her "No matter what boys come into our lives, we'll simply inform them that we are a packaged deal. They don't get any of us without getting the rest of us. Trust me. Once we get out of here, we are going to live together…just us three. I mean, how many poor orphans get to do that. We get a house all to ourselves! Sweetie, our lives is only getting better…" I gave her an apprehensive look. She caught that. "Bella, you and I both know that things could have ended a lot worse. We are here, ALIVE! We can't let our past bring us down. If I did that…I wouldn't get up every morning. I know Alice couldn't either.

"Bad things have happened to all of us and I know it hurts us every day. But if we dwell on that, we'll never really have a prosperous future. Okay, look. Let's all make a promise right now to each other. Let promise to never abandon each other. Let's promise that our little family always comes first. Let's promise no secrets….at least the important ones" She smiled "And of course, let's promise to always be there for one another"

"I'll start, I promise" Rose then looked up at Alice and I

Alice wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at both Rose and I "I promise!"

I love these girls. How could I ever live without them? Even better, how could they love me this much after what I put them through? I don't deserve them, but I promise I'll never let them down. That is the least I could do for them.

They were both staring at me, waiting for my answer. I pulled my tears back and smiled at them.

"I promise"

**Thanks all,**

**-Roxy**


	10. Physical Therapy

Chapter 10: Physical Therapy

We spent the rest of the day talking and sleeping. Around 4:30pm nurses came to our room and gave us some work out cloths. Sadly enough, they had to help us change. I felt a little embarrassed having someone else change me, but these where female nurses. If they were male nurses I would have been more uncomfortable.

After we were all dressed and ready, they put us in our wheelchairs.

"I wonder what Edward's brothers are going to look like" Alice said while the nurses were wheeling us toward the physical therapy ward of the hospital

"I don't know, Edward never told me about their physical appearance" I informed Alice

"I hope there hot! I mean, Alice and I have been severely male deprived since we've been here" Rose ginned at us. "Oh excuse me ladies" she looked at the nurses "Do you mind leaving us here and letting us wheel ourselves the rest of the way"

The three nurses just looked at each other. The older one shrugged and walked off without another word. With that, the two just followed suit

"Rose what was that about?" I asked her

"I just want to get a good look at these guys before we make our entrance" Rose explained

We got to the ward and I immediately saw Edward there with two other guys. They were all wearing sweats and t-shirts. The one to Edwards left was a tall blonde boy. He was a little taller than Edward and had a slim physique. He was really handsome. The other boy to Edward's right was a tall muscular boy with dark wavy hair. He was making some rather indecent gestures towards Edward. I wander what he is talking about.

The blonde and muscular boy started laughing at Edward. Edward just shrugged them off, he seemed embarrassed. This made me laugh along with them. They just looked so natural together, their bond was tight. It doesn't even seem like they were just adopted brothers.

"Oh, I choose that stud muffin with the dark hair" Rose told us with a hungry look in her eyes

"Totally yours Rose, I already want that tall blonde one other there" Alice exclaimed

"You girls are ridiculous" I told them, rolling my eyes

"Please, we don't even want to get it now. We have some relatively hot guys awaiting our presence" Rose told me

"Whatever let's just get this over with" I complained. Internally I was at war. On one hand, I was really excited to see Edward again. On the other hand, I was really nervous to see Edward again. I just hope he doesn't regret our kiss this morning.

We opened the doors and walked inside the big room. It looked just like the local gym across the street from our orphanage. The room was filled with equipment and walking rails. Since it was late outside, there was no one else in the room except for the three boys. Immediately the boys noticed our entrance

"Well hello there pretty ladies" that came from the big guy standing next to Edward. He approached me and said, "So, are you the girl that has been stealing my little brother every night?"

Honestly, how could I respond to that? "Yes" I said in a whisper

He boomed in laughter. "I hope he hasn't worked you out too much just yet" he winked at me

I felt the blush run up to my cheeks as soon as I thought back to the kiss Edward and I just shared this morning.

"Emmett shut up!" Edward's hissed at his older brother. He looked at me and said, "I'm sorry, it seems like our parents didn't teach the oldest any manners"

"Oh please Eddie-boy" Emmett gave Edward a strong nudge "People love me"

Edward gave Emmett an annoying look. "Ladies these are my brothers. The blonde over here is Jasper and the big mouth over here is Emmett. Boys, this is Rose, Alice and Bella"

"So, you're the infamous Emmett I keep hearing about" Rose wheeled herself closer to him

"Glad you'd heard of me" he walked closer to Rose. "Are you going to be my partner today?"

"Only if you behave yourself" Rose shot back at him playfully

"Hey now… I thrive off of my behavior skills…thank you very much Rosalie" Emmett said in a mocking tone

"Oh why of course…and its Rose if you don't mind"

He grabbed her hand and kissed it. "It is certainly a pleasure to meet you…Rose" He kissed her hand again and I swear Rose gave out a little blush of her own. "Now I think we should get started" Emmett grabbed her wheelchair and led her to the other side of the room.

The four of us just looked at each other in shock. It seemed like those two hit it off rather quickly.

Alice was looking at Jasper. He seemed to be pleased with that. He began to approach her

"Well Alice, I think that may be are cue to get started as well." Jasper stuck out his hand towards Alice to shake her hand

"Alright there cowboy, but be gentile. I'm still pretty weak" Alice trying to go for that damsel in distress façade.

"That's a promise" Jasper wheeled her over to the opposite end of the room away from Emmett and Rose. Who seem to be getting along just fine.

That just left Edward and me alone. We looked at each other and laughed

"Well, I guess I don't have to be worrying too much about my brothers. They seem to be rather found of your friends" Edward chimed between giggles

"I know right." I laughed. "Well, I'm glad the girls like your brothers."

"Me too. Now, let's get started shall we?" Edward grabbed my wheelchair and led us to the walking rails.

"Well, I'm as ready as I'll ever be" I told him. I was still pretty nervous and he hasn't brought up the kiss yet

"Don't worry, you'll do fine. Now, I want you to grab these two poles here with both your hands. Try to put as little strain on your arms because I want you to walk without the support." Edward then grabbed me by my waist and helped me out the wheelchair

Before I could get started, I immediately took notice of how close we were. He held me up with his strong muscular arms by my waist. I could feel his strong chest against my back as he put me to the right position. I think he noticed the closeness we were sharing

"You know, I couldn't stop thinking about you all day today" he whispered in my ear. I felt Goosebumps riding up my arms

"I know what you mean" I told him

He chuckle "Is that right?"

"Yes….it was my first kiss" On NO!!! Why did I just tell him that? My cheeks were defiantly burning. I didn't want to get that personal already

"Really? I didn't realize that" He seemed puzzled

I didn't know what to say about that. So, we got uncomfortably quiet and I grabbed the two poles with my hands and tried to support my own weight with my legs. My legs felt very wobbly. I held myself up with my arms and Edward kept his hands on my waist.

After a long silence Edward finally spoke up

"I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable just now. I was just shocked. It seemed like you knew what you were doing this morning" he admitted

"I honestly didn't know what came over me. I was just trying to follow your lead, I guess" I really hope I didn't ruin anything by telling him this. We were still walking down the rails. By now I was putting more pressure on my legs.

"That's funny" He gave me a nervous laugh

"Why exactly is that funny" I had to ask getting embarrassed

"Well, that was my first kiss too. I thought I was the one following your lead" he whispered that in my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

Wow! I was Edward's first kiss. No way. Surely this Greek god has kissed a lot of other girls before

"Really?" I turned my head a little so I could see his face

He looked right into my eyes, pulling my waist closer to his body. "Yes, I told you before that I've never really liked anyone else before you." He leaned into me and kissed my neck. Oh, that felt so good. I need some kind of distraction before I get too carried away.

"Y-yeh, but some people kiss without having to like them" I informed him, trying to ignore the fact that his lips are on my neck. He gently sucked on my earlobe and stood up straight.

"I'm not that kind of a guy" Edward said rather softly. He turned me around so he could look at me. His beautiful green eyes seemed like they could pierce right through me. All I could do was stare back.

"Em-mett!..Would…you-ple-ase-stop….that" Rose screamed breathlessly.

I looked over at the both of them. Rose was lying on the yoga mat face up and Emmett was sitting on his knees pulling Rose's legs up to her chest. I guess he started tickling her toes causing her to laugh out hysterically

Edward just gave me a shy smile and we continued our walk. I looked over at Alice and Jasper. It seems that Jasper was helping Alice stretch out her arms. She was sitting Indian style on the matt and Jasper was standing over her. He was pulling her arms all the way up to the ceiling very slowly. Even from this far away, I could see how gentile he was with her. Alice had a smile on her face when I heard Jasper saying 'you're doing great darlin'. I just smiled at them

"I think they are hitting it off better than I thought they would" Edward looking at his brothers.

"I guess they are" I laughed. "It's funny, but they claimed which one they wanted before we walked in the doors. I suppose they have a great judge in character"

"Did they now?" Edward repositioned us so that I could walk back to where we started. He was giving me that wonderful crooked smile again

"Yep" I looked right back at him smiling

"Did you claim me?" He grabbed my waist again and led me forward. I could still feel his strong chest against my back.

"Oh, well they already knew…I was going to partner up with you" I informed him. Even though I want to tell him that they already knew he was _mine_

"I'm glad they did. I wouldn't have it any other way" He leaned in closer to me. This felt amazing. I could feel his worm body behind me. He bent down and softly brushed his lip on the back of my neck.

"Hmm, that feels so nice Edward" I had to tell him

He chuckled against my neck. "I'm glad you approve" then he continued

I couldn't really focus on anything but the sensations that were running all over me. I have never felt this good…ever. I mean the closest would be performing on stage, but even that wasn't near this feeling Edward was giving me.

"How are you feeling now?" Edward asked

"I'm great actually. Why?" I leaned further into his chest

"Well, you seem to be doing excellent right now and I was wondering if you're up for the tread machine." He pointed to the grey machine in the corner of the room. He paced me on top of the machine between the two railings.

"I'll start you off on slow" Edward began pushing the buttons. The conveyer belt started rotating, forcing me to walk at a steady pace. I put a lot of force on my arms keeping me steady. Edward standing behind me in case I would lose balance.

We were on the tread machine for about half an hour. We did a few other exercises after that. During the course of our session, I would steal glances at the girls. Their interactions with the Edward's brothers were priceless. It seems like they are already comfortable with each other. I saw Rose already slap Emmett upside his head whenever he would say something inappropriate. He would just rub his head and stare at her innocently. I saw Alice giving Jasper some sweet glances whenever they would face each other. It seemed like Jasper felt the same thing she was feeling and stared lovingly right back at her.

Soon enough it was already 8:00pm and we had to get back to our room to change and go to sleep. The girls wished the boys a sweet goodnight. I noticed that they gave their new beaus hugs and pecks on the cheek. I turned to Edward and he got on his knees so he could give me a quick kiss on the lips from my wheelchair. Before he stood up, he leaned into my ear and told me he would be in our room around 10:00pm. That would give me plenty of time to get settled in my room.

As soon as the nurse left our room (from changing us back to our hospital gowns) the girls and I stared at one another. Then we all let out a loud yell

"Oh my god!!! Bella! Jasper is amazing. We have sooooooo much in common. I mean he loves the same type of music I do and the same kind of movies. It's like I've known him for years!" Alice squealed on her bed.

"Yeh…and Emmet is just as awesome. I mean he's a total goof ball, but he's also very sweet. It's hard for me to be around him and not have a smile on my face. And did you see that body? Wow! He's like perfect!" Rose exclaimed excitedly.

"Well, I'm glad you liked them" I smiled

"Oh, we know you had a good time tonight. I saw you and Edward necking over at the rails!" Alice chirped

My face turned red

"And I saw some whispering in the ear too" Rose included.

"What can I say?" I looked at them with innocent eyes and a huge smile on my face

"Spill it Bella"

"Edward told me I was his first kiss too" I told them shyly

"Are you serious?" Rose was obliviously just as shocked as I was

I just nodded my head at them.

"Ooooohhhh that's so cute!!!!" they both said at the same time

"Geez girls, lay off" I told them

"No Bella! That is so cute! You two belong together I just know it" Alice informed me and I know there's no betting against Alice

*ring* *ring* *ring*

We all looked at the phone wondering who that could be.

"I bet its Jacob. I told him I was going to send him our new address, but I haven't gotten it yet" I reassured the girls, who were looking at me with smiles on their faces

*ring*

"Hello?" I asked

"_You better cut him loose or I'll do it for you…Don't forget your __MINE__!!_!"

Then the phone went dead

My heart fell to my stomach. I knew exactly who that was

***

**A/N: I have to thank Llamalicious Twi-Hard!! Thank you so much for your help in this chapter. You're awesome and love collaborating with you**

**Thanks for reading buddies,**

**Roxy**


	11. Shock

Chapter 11: Shock

I just stood there with the phone up to my ear. I could only hear the dial tone from the phone and my frantically pounding heart.

The same thoughts kept rushing through my mind over and over again:

_HE_ was here at this hospital!

_HE_ saw me today!

_HE_ saw me today…with Edward!

_He_ saw Edward holding and kissing me!

Oh God! What am I going to do? What if he comes back? What if he tries to hurt the girls and me again? What if he wants to hurt Edward and his brothers now? OH God! What does _HE_ want?

I couldn't stop the tears from falling while I rerun everything that has just happened. Wondering what's going to happen next

I was so focused on my thoughts that I didn't even hear the girls yelling at me

"BELLA! BELLA! BELLA! What's wrong?"

I turned around and saw Alice crying. She must have known that something bad had just happened. She was worriedly looking at me and Rose, back and forth

What do I do? What do I tell them? The truth? Lie? Oh, what do I do?

"I-I-"

"Please Bella, your scaring us to death. What's wrong?" I looked up at Rose and she had tears in her eyes

They know who was on the phone. They know that only one person could get this kind of reaction out of me. They know…and that's why they are so scared. They just want me to confirm that their nightmare is real.

"H-HE called a-an-and HE…." I was at lost with words

"Oh My God! HE called?!!!!" Alice was panicking

All of our hearts were racing fast. In came a rush of nurses and Dr. Cullen. He stared at our monitors

"Ladies what's the matter?" He questioned us

We didn't respond. Our hearts still running crazy

"Okay Nurse Boyd, we to sedate them." Dr. Cullen and nurse Boyd got a needle filled with fluid and injected it into our IVs. Once they did that, I felt my heart settle down. I looked over at the girls and they were also settling down

"Well, ladies. Please tell me why you all had panic attacks at the same time" Dr. Cullen looked at me

"I-I don't know?" I told him. I really don't feel like talking

"Carlisle, we just got a disturbing phone call" Rose informed him

"Okay, who called?" Carlisle asked

"Our attacker…h-he said he saw us today…with your sons" I told him. I couldn't look at him in the eyes. I feel like I just put his sons in danger.

"I see…well, it seems like we are going to get really strict with our security from now on" He looked at the wall behind me, he was lost in thought. I'm sure he was worried for his sons but didn't want to show off that much emotion.

"Bella, I really need for you to tell me who he is" Carlisle had a stern look on his face

I just shook my head

"Then, give me a description on what he looks like"

I just shook my head again

"Well I don't know what to do, but I promise you ladies that you'll be safe here. We won't let anyone in this room that is not authorized. I'm going to go outside and call the police. I'll make sure to have more than one officer here on the ground from now on." He gave us a firm look and left the room

The nurses filed out with Carlisle. This left me and the girls alone in the room.

I didn't know what to do or say. I felt groggy from the medication and scared out of my mind. I turned to Rose and she looked very scared. She stared right back at me with tears flowing down her cheeks. I turned to Alice and she was crying too.

"Bella, I understand why you don't want to talk to the police or Dr. Cullen…I don't want to make _him_ angry too" Alice said in a very week voice.

"Alice please, just clam down" Rose begged. She looked up at me. "Bella, sweetie, what exactly did he say"

"He said that 'I better cut him loose or I'll do it for you…Don't forget your _MINE_!!!" I started crying. I don't want him to hurt Edward.

"Okay, well that means he saw us today with the boys" Rose looked as if she was in deep thought

"Oh god, what if he wants to hurt the boys!" Alice said with tears spilling out

"I don't know" I said in a whisper

We all got quiet. We didn't know what to say. I knew the girls liked the boys. Even though Rose only knew Emmett for a couple of hours, I could tell she really liked him. Usually when a guy shows interest in her (and that was frequent) she would just laugh it off. In truth, she never really trusted guys. She once told me that she only saw Royce in every guy that would ask her out. But with Emmett, it seemed more innocent, natural and endearing. She likes him

Alice obviously has a strong connection with Jasper. They seemed to be very in tuned to one another's feelings. He would gently hold her hand whenever they would walk or he would tenderly hold her up with both arms when they stretched. Alice has never been much of a fan of physical contact with me and Rose so close, but she allowed Jasper to touch her. She likes him

Me and Edward are hard to describe. I already know I care a lot about him. More than he could care for me. I know he's too good for me. And I know we could never be together because someone else already has a claim on me….

*Ring* *Ring*

We all looked at the phone scared out of our minds, all of our heart monitors started speeding up again

*Ring* Ring*

"Hel-Hello?" I asked while uncontrollably shaking

"Bells? What's wrong honey?" Jacob's worried voice filled my ear

I sighed in relief. I looked at the girls "Don't worry it's Jake"

They too sighed in relief

"Jake I'm so glad it's you"

"OH thanks Bells. I'm glad to hear you voice too, but tell me what's wrong. I can hear it in your voice, you're scared" He said. Jake has always been in tune with my emotions

"Jake, I-I don't know how to say this" I took a deep breath. "_He_ called just now"

"WHAT?!" Jake practically yelled. Even though I can't see him, I know he's shaking with anger. He's always had a short temper

"Jake, calm down." I told him

"Wait wait wait, you want _me_ to calm down?" He asked. "How in the fuck am I suppose to calm down when that low-life fuck keeps tormenting you?"

"Please Jake" I whispered. "You're scaring me" I started crying into the phone

"Oh honey don't cry" He suddenly calmed down. "I didn't mean to yell at you…I would never do that. I just can't believe this guy hasn't gotten his full yet... I don't understand why he keeps harassing you girls." He took a deep breath. "Also, I'm way over here and your way over there…I can't protect you. It's all just very frustrating"

"I know Jake, but please don't worry"

"I can't help it Bells" Jake told me. He seems to be at loss. Almost like he feels powerless

"Jake, I don't know what to do" I told him

"I know what you should do, but you never listen to me" He was starting to get angry again

"And what is that exactly" I matched his tone

"You have to go to the police and tell them who he is!"

"I can't do that. He sent me a note the day I woke up after the shooting. He told me that if I tell anyone, he would torture and kill me." Hopeless tears started spilling out

"Bells, if you tell the police who he is then they could catch him" He explained. "Please honey, do that for me"

"I-I can't….the police have never been able to catch him. How are they going to do it this time?"

"Because it's obvious that he's close to you" He took another angry deep breath. "It would be easier for the police to catch him if they knew what he looks like"

"I don't know Jake"

"Bells you need to. Look, I just called to tell you that my request for time off has been approved. I won't be able to leave until the end of next month, but I'm going over there once I land." He told me

"That's great Jake, I really miss you" I took a needed breath

"I miss you too. I just don't want anything bad to happen to you or the girls. I know I get angry sometimes, but it's only because I care so much"

"I know, that's why I put up with you" I gave him a weak laugh

"Yeh that and I'm totally hot" He laughed

"Of course Jake" I laughed back. "I have to admit that I do miss seeing you walking around the orphanage without you shirt on" I smiled.

He laughed. "Oh I know you do…I would hate to disappoint all my lady fans" I laughed. That was my Jacob, so carefree and lovable

"Well Jake, I will try to get a hold of Governor Goodman tomorrow and find out our new address. Once I find out, I'll send it over to you"

"Sounds good to me. I better get going. We are going to invade something or look for someone or do stuff like that" He laughed

"Well, please be careful. I want to see you with all fingers and toes" I quirked

"'I'll see to that honey." He got serious. "Please watch out for what's best for you and the girls"

"That's a promise" I told him

"Okay, bye" the line went dead

***

"What did Jake say?" Alice asked

"He told me we should tell the police who _he_ is" I informed her

"Well, I guess it's good that you never listen to him" Alice laughed

"Okay girls that enough" Rose told us. "We should get some sleep and think about this more in the morning."

"Sounds good to me" I told her. With all the therapy sessions and the phone calls, I was really tired

"Good night"

"Good night" I whispered

"Sweet dreams cuties…."

We all fell asleep. Even though I was exhausted, I knew tomorrow was going to be a hard day.

***

I suddenly woke up in a deep sweat. I couldn't keep the nightmares at bay. Thoughts about _him_ were slowly driving me insane. I looked over to the clock on the wall and noticed it was 3:00am. It seems I'll never be able to have a good night's sleep.

I rolled over and saw Edward asleep in his chair. I smiled to myself. He looks so peaceful in his sleep. It made me so happy to think that he came here just to protect me. He is defiantly too good for me. I mean, all he's ever done is be kind and nice to me. All I have ever done for him is put him and his family in danger. I know _HE_ would stop at nothing till he gets me and I can't allow more innocent bystanders get in the way of his goal. Right then, I knew what I had to do, but I don't want to do it.

"Ed-Edward?" I shook his hand.

"Mmmm?" He returned

"I really need to talk to you about something…really important" I whispered

"'kay, one moment please" He looked at me. "I want to give you my full attention" He started rubbing his eyes, willing himself to wake up

"Alright Bella. What's wrong?" he asked. He leaned closer to me so I didn't have to speak too loudly. I could easily smell his glorious sent in the air

"I-I don't want you here anymore" I whispered really low, but I knew he heard me

"What? Why? Bella, what are you talking about?" Edward's eyes got wide. He was dumb shocked

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be around me anymore" I told him this while staring at the ground. I can't look in his eyes

"Bella, my dad told me what happened today and don't worry. He called the police and they are outside right now. No one is going to hurt you while you're here" He seemed really upset. I feel really bad for upsetting him, but I have to do what I have to do.

"It's not me I'm worrying about Edward" I looked at him, he seemed more than upset

"Then who are you worried for exactly" he sternly asked me

"Who do you think? Obviously you and your brothers, Edward! I'm not going to let what happened to the girls happen to your family!" I almost yelled at him

"So your solution is to get rid of me?" he looked deep in my eyes with nothing but pain in them

"Yes" I whispered

"Well, I'm not leaving Bella. I don't want to…it's not in me to leave you" He whispered that last part

I looked up at him with teary eyes. "Get out of my room"

"No"

"Edward. I don't want you here. Leave!" I'm starting to get angry. Why isn't he listening to me?

"Bella, I know your angry and feeling helpless. I understand, but don't make me leave you"

"I need you to leave. I'm so sorry Edward. I have someone that will never leave me alone until he gets what he wants. He'll hurt everyone around me in order to achieve his sick goal. I can't handle putting more people at risk. Leave my room or I'll call the cop outside and have him escort you out" It shocked me how strong my voice sounded

He looked back at me not knowing how to react. He just stared at me for the longest time. I couldn't look back at him. I felt too bad. I know I really like him, but I don't want to put him in any danger.

"Bella. I don't want to upset you anymore." He grabbed my hand and put it up to his face. "If you ever need me…for anything…please _please_ call me. I'll always be waiting"

With that he got up from the chair and walked out the room.

Once he was gone I started crying. I know I was doing the right thing. But I also know I will never find another guy like him again.

***

**Lots of Love Rugrats,**

**-Roxy**


	12. Realizations

Chapter 12: Realizations

I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. I just laid there, listening to the sound of the girls' heart monitors and the commotion happening outside our room. Nurses were running around and doctors were talking to patients. I tried my best to concentrate on all of their actions. I even stared out the window. The only view I had was of the parking lot. It was pretty empty, but I did notice a nice sliver Volvo parked. My distractions were useless because in the end, all my thoughts were back to Edward. I felt really bad for sending him away. God only knows how much I wished he would have put up a bigger fight to stay with me. But I'm thankful he listened to me. I'm glad he understood how much I needed him to leave. It is all for the best.

I just couldn't get his face out of my mind though. He held so much pain in his eyes when I forcibly told him to leave my room. I wonder what he was truly thinking at this moment. I wonder what he truly thinks about me. I mean: Did he really like me? I know I was his first kiss and that should mean something. But what if it didn't? What if he just saw me as some charity case?

These thoughts were killing me and I'm thankful to see that Alice was stirring awake.

She looked at me and smiled. I smiled back. Then she looked around the room. Confusion spread her face.

"Bella, where's Edward? He usually leaves around 7:00am" Alice asked

That brought the smile off my face. I looked down at the floor.

"I told him to leave last night" I whispered. Tears were threatening to pool out my eyes

"Why would you do that?" she asked

"I don't want to put him or his brothers in any danger Alice. I know what _HE_ meant when he told me to 'cut him loose or I will'. He means to hurt Edward if he continues to see me"

"Did you explain that to him?" Alice asked questionably

"Yeah, I told him it wasn't safe for him to be around me" I looked at her confused

"So…he knows you wanted him to leave for his safety?" she cocked her eyebrow at me

"Y-Yes, I dunno I think. What does that have to do with anything?" I stared back at her

"No, just curious is all" she laughed

"Alice. What are you talking about?" I was starting to get angry. Clearly she's hiding something

"Oh Bell relax wont cha? I'm just glad he knows you broke up with him for safety reasons," she exclaimed chipper

"Why is that a good thing?" I asked annoyed. What on earth is going on in that pixie's head?

"Well, he might have left for good thinking you didn't like him or something. Instead, you told him it was for his own safety. MEANING…he's not really going to leave!!!!!" She yelped.

"How did you come up with that Alice? Where is that logic coming from?" I had a puzzled look on my face

"B-Bella! Come on! I know you're not that dense!" She took a deep breath. "If you told him you didn't like him, then he would have easily left you alone for good. Thinking you didn't return the feeling he felt for you. Which you obliviously did, might I add. But, since you're doing this for his and his family's safety, he's going to know that you like him and want what's best for him." She explained that little rant to me like she was talking to a child

"But Alice. I want him to leave for good" I told her

"No you don't! Liar! I know for a fact that you don't really want him to really leave you alone." She exclaimed triumphantly

"That might be true, but you're neglecting one fact. You know? The reason why I'm doing this. _HIM_!" I yelled

"Yeh, I get that Bella! Obliviously. I mean, I'm in the bed right next to you, remember?" She motioned her hands up and down her body were she got shot. "I know what _He's_ capable of. And so does Edward. If he's willing to put himself through that, then don't stop him. He's a big boy and can take care of himself. AND…he has two really hot brothers there to help him along the way!"

"I don't want anything bad to happen. You're not going to change my mind on the situation so drop it please" I begged her

"I'll drop it all right! But you're the one that's going to have to remember that when he has his hands on you tonight for our session." She wiggled her eyebrows at me

"Oh I forgot about that. We are going to have to ask Carlisle to get us different trainers."

"Oh No. WE. Are. NOT! I really like my partner!" She complained.

"I know but wh-"

"Enough. You heard what Carlisle said yesterday. There is going to be more security around the hospital. We'll just have make sure someone is outside our door and window when we're with the boys."Alice suggested

"I don't know Alice. It all can't be that simple"

"But it is my dear sister. You're the one making things too hard" She laughed

"I wish I could look at life like that" I exclaimed

"I know. It's a gift!!" She sounded really bubbly

"What are you girls talking about?" Rose awoke from sleep

"Oh nothing. Bella broke up with Edward, but that won't last long." She winked at me. "And we are going to ask for more security when we are doing our sessions with the boys"

"Sounds good to me. I really can't wait to see Emmett again. I mean, did you see those arms on him. Hmm, and I'm not even going to talk about his ass…yum" Rose said with an added lick on her lips.

"Okay enough of that." I rolled my eyes. "Alice I need you to give me Governor Goodman's number. I promised Jake I would send him our new address."

"Yep! One sec" She went to her dower and got the number out.

Since all three of us were kind of far away from one another, we were left with a bit of a predicament. How was she going to transport me the paper when she's on the other end of the room?

"Totally got your back Bella" She got the book inside the dower and stuffed the phone number in the book. She threw it at me and it landed on the end of my bed. I grabbed the book and got the paper with the phone number out.

"Thank Alice, you're a genius"

"Oh yeah. Real geniuses I have here with me. Tell me….why didn't you just yell the number out to her?" Rose stated

We all looked at each other and through our heads back in a fit of laughter. We didn't even consider that option. My side hurt from laughing so much. Once we all stopped I grabbed the phone and dialed the number

"Hello?" a female's voice filled the receiver

"Yes, hello. My name is Isabella Swan and I was wondering if I could speak with Governor Goodman?" I asked. Even though it feels weird saying my whole name. I never really liked it too much

"Isabella Swan. Why does that name sound familiar? Oh right! You part of the three girls that got shot about a month ago?" she asked

_Great question! _I sarcastically thought to myself

"Yes that was me" I pinched the bridge between my noise and eyes. I guess I got that stress habit from Edward...

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. It's just, Elijah said that if any of you girls called that I'm suppose to put you on the line straight to him. You know, not leave you on hold for too long" she explained

"Yes, I understand." I told her. Rolling my eyes at Rose and Alice who were watching me.

"Okay, here he is" she hung up the phone

"Isabella is that you?" a big man's voice boomed in the phone

"Bella please. And yes it's me"

"Of course Bella. What do I owe this great honor?" he asked

"Well, I was wondering if you found a house for me and girls yet?" I wasn't sure if this is working right or not. Maybe he forgot about his promises

"Oh yes I have young lady! I have the address right here if you want it. I was going to surprise you and the girls today actually. You caught me a litter early here." He laughed

"Oh, I'm sorry"

"No need to be dear. Actually, you are saving me a trip you know" He chortled.

He gave me the address. We were going to live in the town of Forks. Really close to Forks High.

"Thank you Governor. I really appreciate all you help" I really do. This is really nice of him

"No worries. I'm glad I can help you girls during this ruff time in your lives. But I don't need to tell you that all I can take of is the house and electricity payments. My office is small and we could only do so much. So, I afraid you three are going to need to get jobs as soon as you can to make utility payments"

"Of course. We'll look into it as soon as we leave here" I told him

"Yes and that's going to be soon from what Dr. Cullen has told me." Governor Goodman explained

"I hope so. Well thank you again and we'll see you soon" I bid farewell to him

"Yes. I'll see you girls soon. And be careful now" he hung up the phone.

"Well," I looked at the girls. "Looks like we have a house" I cheered

We all started jumping up and down our bed. Cheering and yelling to one another. That is probably the best news we all had in a long time.

***

We spent most of the day talking about what we wanted to do to our new house. This is the first place other than the orphanage that we could call home. Alice and Rose argued on what color they wanted to paint the living room. Next thing we knew, nurses came into our room to change us for our sessions

Once we were wheeled into the room my heart started pounding out my chest. I saw Edward there with his brothers. They weren't laughing like they did last time I saw them and that made me sad.

Edward approached me.

"We should get started." With that he grabbed my wheelchair and led us to the end of the room

I looked back at the girls and they exchanged hugs with their guys. Emmett actually planted a kiss on Rose's cheek. Jasper brought Alice a signal flower and took her to the other end of the room as well.

"So how was your day?" I looked up at Edward. He didn't even make eye contact with me.

"Fine."

"Good. Now I want you to try and get up on your own, okay?"

I motioned to get up. I did a great job until I stood to walk away from the chair and I slipped almost hitting the ground. He grabbed me in time.

Our bodies were really close. I could feel the electricity radiating off him. I couldn't help the shiver that ran up my spine. I noticed that he held on me for one too many seconds. Reluctantly, he let me go and I stood between the railings.

"How was your day?" I asked him

"Not too great. My back has been killing me all day" Edward answered

"What's wrong with your back?"

"Nothing really. It always hurts whenever I sleep in my car" Edward told me nonchalantly

"Why were you sleeping in your car?" I didn't understand. Doesn't he have a bed at home?

"Aren't you full of questions today." He chucked to himself. "I didn't want to leave you this morning, so I slept in my car right in front of your window. The view wasn't too good, but I could see enough; you know, just in case someone else tried to get in there."

He stayed. Even though I told him to leave he didn't go home. Awe…

"Do you drive a sliver Volvo?" I asked, remember the one I saw earlier

"Yes I do. Did you see it?" He asked

"Yeah. I was looking for some…distractions this morning. So, I looked out my window"

"Why didn't you just sleep Bella? It was really early in the morning." He looked confused

"I couldn't sleep" I whispered

"Why?"

_Oh he just had to ask_

"I felt really bad for what happened between me and you" I told him without looking up toward him

"I know what you mean. I felt really bad about it too" he confessed. I didn't notice how close we where until that moment. My back was leaning on his chest as we walked around the room. Ignoring the spots were the boys and girls were of course.

"I'm sorry if I made you feel bad" I told him

"Does that mean I'm out of the dog house?" he laughed

I laughed too.

When we took a few more steps I spoke up again.

"I still don't think it's a good idea Edward." I looked at the floor

"Does it make any difference if I told you that I insist on me staying with you?" He grabbed me and turned me around to look at him

"No."

He used his index finger to pull my chin up, so I could look in his eyes.

"Bella. I'm not leaving. If you say no, all it means is that I'm going to be sleeping in my car. It doesn't mean I'm going to stay away." He had such determination in his eyes. "And trust me; my chair in your room is a lot more comfortable then my car…plus I like the view from inside" He whispered in my ear.

"Ed-Edward I don't know what to do" I whispered back

"Let me stay with you and we'll work this out together" He begged

"Okay Edward. But please be careful where ever you go. I have a feeling this isn't the last threat _HE_ is going to give."

"Trust me Bella. I can take care of myself." He pulled me in for a hug

I couldn't help but put my arms around his neck to pull him closer. I really missed him today. I missed his phone calls or his lunch breaks with me and the girls. I pulled away just enough so I could kiss him on the lips.

The kiss started off slow, but soon we deepened it. This feeling is incredible. I love kissing Edward. Just the way our lips moved in sync with one another. The way his mouth felt against mine. I wanted him to feel how sorry I really was without using words. I wanted him to know how much he means to me. And he seemed to be conveying the same feelings back to me. I felt his tongue graze the inside of my bottom lip and I was about to grant him access to my mouth when

"Hm, cough cough" Emmett faked clearing his throat

"Yes Emmett…" Edward hissed at his brother

"Sorry to interrupt the, um, make out session, but it's getting late" Emmett winked at me. I blushed

"I know you two didn't notice the time, but we have to get to bed" Alice informed

"Oh wait. Do any of you boys have a cell phone with the internet?" I asked. I desperately need some distraction from the cloches of Emmett and Alice

"Yeh, I do. Why?" Edward handed me his Iphone. Wow, expensive phone

"I need to e-mail our new address to Jacob. Governor Goodman told us where we're going to live after we leave the hospital." I explained while e-mailing Jake

"Who's Jacob?" Emmett asked

"Bella's boy-friend" Rose informed

"Oh, Bella I thought you were single" Emmett looked at me confused

I heard Edward clench his jaw behind me. I had to put him at ease…again

"I am. Jacob is my best friend from growing up. He's in the army right now and just got his time off release approved. He wants to spend his time with me and the girls. Okay Edward, here's your phone. Thanks" I handed him back his phone and kissed him on the cheek.

"You're welcome" He smiled down at me.

"Alright guys, we have to get home. I can smell mom's cooking from here!" Emmett rubbed his muscular tummy. "See ya later Rose" He gave Rose a chaste kiss on the lips

"Bye Alice, I'll see you tomorrow" Jasper kissed Alice on the cheek. I heard her giggle against his lips

"I'll see you later tonight Bella" Edward kissed my lips one more time before setting me down on my wheelchair.

We watched our boys leave the room before we left for our room. I had a really great day. Me and the girls got a house, the therapy session went painless, and I made up with Edward.

The only thing that could go wrong is getting another phone call from _HIM_. I took a deep breath as I approached our room.

***

**Please Review**

**Roxy**


	13. Surprise

Chapter 13: Surprise

We wheeled down the hall with smile on our faces. The girls were happy about their session with their boys. Yep, I said it: _their_ boys. They defiantly have a claim their men. That made me smile. I'm glad to see them happy. And frankly, I was happy too. Edward had forgiven me! Without any form of hesitation, he took me back after my freak out. I let out a sigh of relief. But I knew this happy feeling couldn't last too long.

Regret washed over me quickly. All the things I did tonight were possibly watched. I knew what I could have done to piss someone off: I kissed Edward tonight passionately. It was easily the most passionate kiss I have ever had. If _HE_ was somehow watching us tonight…._HE_ would have defiantly seen it.

I didn't want to go to my room and face the repercussions of my actions. I didn't want to get another threatening phone call. I can't handle anymore of _his_ torment. I wanted it all to end

We wheeled our way through our room. I was in front of the girls. I knew that if anything bad was going to happen, I wanted it to happen to me first.

My heart fell to the ground when I saw it. It was a black rose lying on my bed. I let out a small internal cry in my chest. I wheeled myself closer to my bed. Right then, Rose and Alice let out a little screech of their own; they too had black roses on their beds too! We all had a single black rose with a red ribbon wrapped around it. Just like the night we got shot! What is this suppose to mean?

I shakily approached my bed and saw a note under my black rose. I picked it up and read it out loud:

"_MY GIRLS!!!"_

I looked over at Rose and Alice through teary eyes.

I didn't know what to say. I was totally speechless. We just stood there for I don't know how long until someone broke the silence.

"_HE_ was in this room" Alice whispered

"I don't understand! How could this have happened? Where did all the security go? What happened to all the promises of us being safe here? If he can get into OUR ROOM! Where else can _HE_ go?!!" Rose yelled

"I'm paging Dr. Cullen" Alice stated. She hit the red button to page the nurse.

We just stood there. Staring at each other speechless

"Yes?" in came Nurse Boyd.

"Please get Dr. Cullen in this room as soon as possible. Tell him it's a personal emergency" Alice informed her unsteadily

"Of course dears" She took her cue and left the room.

I was so shocked. I couldn't move or talk. _HE_ was here. _HE_ was here. _HE_ was here…

"Bella! Bella! Why haven't you said anything?" Rose wheeled over to me and hugged me. Soon I felt Alice's little arms around me too

"When does this end?" I whispered in their arms. Tears falling out of my eyes. I have never felt this completely helpless before. I know danger is close and coming, but I can't do anything to stop it.

"I don't know sweetie" Rose answered

"I…w-want…this…over" I said between sobs

"So do we Bella. Alice and I don't like this either. But we have to deal with this until we talk to the police. Bella, sweetie, we have to tell them who _HE_ is. We just have to" Rose grabbed my face in her hands and kissed both my cheeks

"Not yet Rose. P-Please…Let's tell them…later. I want to go to our home…first. _HE_ won't know where we are going. The harassment might stop once we leave the hospital" I told her through teary eyes, basically begging her to agree with me.

"Well, we'll see." Rose stated, while wiping the tears from my cheeks

"Ladies, what can I help you with?" Dr. Cullen came in the room

"We got these black roses and this note" Alice handed him the roses and note

Dr. Cullen looked at the black roses and then read note. He looked back at me with dread in his eyes. I can tell that he knows what the note meant but wasn't sure about the black roses…

I figured I might as well tell him.

"_HE_ sent us black roses the day he tried to abduct us. _HE_ was also holding one black rose when I saw him in the crowd of people at the recreation center." I took a long breath. "As you know, that night he ended up shooting us" I informed him. New tears were spilling out of my eyes again. Recalling that night is still very painful. I can still see him smiling in the crowd.

"I honestly don't know how he could have gotten in this room" Carlisle was deep in thought.

"What are our options Carlisle, other than telling the police who _he_ is?" Alice asked

"Honestly Alice, I don't know. I don't know what more we could do. We already have three police officers here. I'm constantly checking on you ladies like clockwork. Edward is here all night while the officer is outside your ward. I just don't know what else there is to do. Bella, we need to know who _HE_ is" He looked at me

"I can't Carlisle, I'm really sorry. I have gotten some harsh instructions my first day here and I don't want to go against it." I told him. Remembering my first note I got from him, telling me to not tell anyone or he'll get me again. I shivered at that thought.

"Well I still don't understand you logic, but I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do." Carlisle said. "But I won't lie; I am worried about my sons. I'm going to have an officer follow them around and make sure nothing…out of the ordinary happens."

"I understand Carlisle and thank you. I warned Edward yesterday about this and he seems to ignore the severity of our…situation." I told him

"I know, he told me." I looked up at him in shock. Edward told his dad I broke up with him. As if to answer my internal question

"Yes, Bella he told me. My family doesn't have many secrets from one another. I know you broke up with him for his safety. And that he slept in his car that night. I also know you don't want anything to happen to him or my other sons. You're a nice girl and you make my son really happy….Actually, all three of you ladies make my sons very happy from what I hear. I just…I just wish we could get this guy in jail and out of your lives" Carlisle rubbed his temple.

"Sounds good to me, but who knows when that's gonna happen" Alice piped, not using her normal chipper voice

"Where do we go from here?" I asked

"Well, I'm going to report this. I'm going to hand over the black roses and the note over to Officer Webber. After that, I'm going to call my wife and inform her about the situation with our sons. I'll call Edward and make sure he knows what's going on before he comes back here" Carlisle explained

"Please tell him how sorry I am for getting him in this. I swear I didn't want any of this to happen" I looked up at Carlisle through my eye lashes. I know my eyes are red with all the crying.

"I know Bella. I know." He approached me and put his hands on my shoulders. "This will work out somehow" He gave me one more squeeze on my shoulder and left the room.

I looked back at Alice and Rose. They just looked back at me. I wheeled over to them and hugged them tightly. All three of us just stayed there in each other's arms trying to seek some sort of comfort from one another.

"Hey girls" Edward came into the room

I looked up at him and couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"H-Hi" I returned.

"It's late. You all should be getting into bed. Don't worry; my father and I are going to be here all night. I also, called my brothers and they are coming down too. We are going to alternate shifts, so one person is always going to be awake" Edward told us but didn't move from the front door entrance.

"Okay. Let's get to bed girls" Rose said. She grabbed me and Alice in one more loving hug before she wheeled over to her bed.

We each used our new methods to get into bed. With all the therapy sessions, we have been able to get up on our own.

I forgot to put the lock on the wheelchair brake and it slid from under me. I was about to fall when I felt two very strong arms wrapped around my waist. The feeling of Edward so close to me made my blush

"I love it when you blush" Edward whispered in my ear

"Why is that?" I had to ask. I hate my stupid blush; it always gave away what I was thinking

"Because…" he said as he repositioned me in his arms. He lifted me up bridal style and laid me on my bed. "It's very endearing" he kissed my overheated cheeks.

I smiled looking up at him. I whispered a simple "Thank you"

He heard "You're very welcome" he smiled back

"Good night Bella" Alice yelled out from her bed. "You too Edward! Goodnight Rosie!"

"Night Alice….Bella" Rose whispered. Already down for the count. "Edwin"

"Goodnight to you too Rose, and its Edward." He laughed. "Night Alice"

"Goodnight" I said back to all of them. I know if I say another name everyone will just start the whole thing over again. I looked back up to steal a look at Edward. Wow. He's really beautiful.

He looked back down on me as he positioned himself in his chair. We just stared at each other in comfortable silence for a while

"You really should get some sleep. You had a rough day" Edward told me

"I don't think I could sleep right now. I'm too scared something tragic is going to happen if I close my eyes" I told him.

"Don't worry so much, you're going to go grey you know" he laughed, flashing my wonderful crocked smile. That made me feel a lot better. Suddenly all the worry I had started to fade away. I guess Edward really has that effect on me.

"Not funny" I shoved his shoulders playfully.

He grabbed my hand and gently pulled me into a kiss. I know he meant it to just be a chaste kiss, but I grabbed the back of his neck to deepen it. He must not have minded because he kept up the rhythm. He scooted his chair closer to me so I could comfortably lay my head on my pillow. Our lips were moving together in perfect sync. I felt his tongue on my bottom lip asking for more and I gladly gave it to him. Letting a moan slip from my mouth as I took a short breath. That only made him kiss me more fiercely. I could have sworn I heard a little growl coming from his chest.

Things were starting to get heated. My whole body seemed to get really into it. Edward grabbed the side of my waist to pull me closer to him. As great as this felt, I knew I have to end it soon before I really let myself go. So, I slowly sucked on his bottom lip and let him go.

I didn't know how long the, well for lack of a better word, 'making out' lasted, but now we were both gasping for much needed air. We just stared at each other while we caught out breath. I know I was giving off a goofy grin because he had a huge smile on his face

"Wow." I sighed. That was defiantly the best kiss we have ever shared.

"Hmmm. You can say that again." Edward was breathing hard too. He grabbed my hand and started rubbing smooth circles across my palm

I sighed contently. I really like him…but now that I think of it, I don't really know much about him. I mean, I don't know much about his life. Sure, I know fundaments like: he was adopted, has two other adoptive brothers, drives a very nice silver Volvo, and works at a hospital. But those are just facts. I want to know more…

But how do I question him? I mean, what do I say?

Then a brilliant idea popped in my head.

"Hey Edward. Since we both don't want to sleep, are you up to playing a game?" I asked.

He gave me a wonderful crocked grin and nodded his head in a 'yes'

"Okay…..how about we play 20 questions?" I asked rather sheepishly

"That actually sounds like a lot of fun. How about I start with the first question. Hmm, what's your favorite color?" he asked

"Green" I blushed. I hope he doesn't ask why. "How long have you lived in Forks?"

"Three years. We lived in Chicago forever, but Carlisle got a job here and Esme thought it would be a good 'family experience' to change some scenery. What instruments do you play?" Edward asked looking genuinely curious.

"I mostly play the guitar, that's my favorite! I love the way it sounds and feels under my palms. There's so many feeling you could divulge, you know?" He nodded his head at me. I smiled. "I also know how to play the drums and base…actually I'm the one who taught Alice to play base. She took at little time, but she got it eventually. I also know little bit of piano. I'm okay, but not that great. I was told I don't have piano fingers" I showed him my hands and wiggled my little fingers at him. He chuckled at my display. I wonder. "Do you play anything?"

"Yes I do. Not as many things as you apparently. That's very impressive Bella. I, on the other hand, do have piano fingers" He waved his fingers at me mockingly like I did to him. I just grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers. He continued, "I have been playing piano for years. See, I was really shy as a child. Esme was worried that I held too much emotions in since I lost my parents at a young age. She asked a counselor what she could do to help me express myself. He recommend music. When Esme asked me what I wanted to play, I choose the piano because I saw Mickey Mouse playing it all the time and thought he looked cool. So, I took my first lesson when I was eight years old. I instantly got hooked. I learned new and old compositions quickly. My instructor was very impressed. He said I was a natural. I always kept it up and now I occasionally write my own compositions. Playing is defiantly my personal way of escape." He smiled at me. "Why is guitar your favorite?"

"Well, my dad Charlie played the guitar. He would always play for me since as long as I could remember. I really loved the sounds that came out it. His music quickly became my comfort blanket for me. He would play in our living room and I loved it; it was a real bonding time for us. I remember he once told me music is a way to express feelings in our soul." I took a deep breath. I really miss Charlie, but I didn't want to cry in front of Edward right now. It would damper our game. So I asked, "What is your favorite composition?"

"I'm a really big fan of Debussy's 'Clair de Lune.' The melody is beautiful and it flows perfectly. I love to play it closing my eye, just letting the piece flow through the room." Edward closed his eyes for a moment. He opened them and asked me his next question. "Who taught you how to play?"

"Well, once Charlie died I really missed the sound. So when I was about nine I decided to learn how to play. But orphanage didn't have tutors or anything. So I turned to my best friend Jacob

See, he was the one that was really there for me when Charlie died. But when my mom decided she wanted to move away, me and Jake lost contact. About two years later Rene…died and we rekindled our friendship because the orphanage was really close to where he lived. I told Jake that I wanted to learn how to play and he bought us used guitars the next day. We would play for hours in his garage trying to teach ourselves. But soon enough we hit our limit and Billy hired us a tutor. The tutor said I was a natural. That really made me happy because I knew Charlie was my big influence." I smiled. I knew Charlie would be happy that I learned how to play. And suddenly I remember playing with Jake at his garage back at his house. I took another deep sigh

"That's nice of Jacob to do that for you" Edward said

"Yes, I really miss him." I looked back at Edward. I really wanted to change the subject. "Have you ever dated anyone?"

Well that shocked him. He thought about it for a moment and then answered…

"No. Well, I mean, Yes" He took a deep breath. "Okay, I went on a couple of dates with this one girl, but it never lead anywhere. We only had a couple of dates, like five. Honestly, the only reason I kept seeing her was because Emmett and Jasper insisted. They thought I needed a girlfriend bad and that she was pretty. But man, I swear she only cared about the way she looked and what I thought about how she looked. It wasn't anything." He looked at me seriously. He was trying to convey sincerity through his eyes. I believed him. "Did you ever date?" He asked.

Well, I guess I deserved that.

"No. I was asked out a couple of times by some band guys, but none of them really seemed interested in me. They just wanted to get in my pants" I blushed at the memory. I can't believe I said that out loud. Rose's influence is starting to peak out. I need a distraction. "What your favorite sport?"

"FOOTBALL OF COURSE!!" yelled a very excited Emmett. He quickly walked inside our room.

"Shhhhh idiot. Can't you see there are girls sleeping?!" Edward hissed in a whispered tone.

"Yeh yeh yeh whatever." He shook off his brother's comment. "Wow, Rose looks like a beautiful sleeping goddess" he whispered not meaning for anyone else to hear.

"Nice to see you Emmett" I looked up at him. Boy he looked even bigger in that tight Led Zeppelin shirt

"Thanks B-doll. You lookin' good in that gown." He laughed. I of course blushed

"That's what I wanted to see" Emmett boomed again in laughter pointing at my red face

"Leave her alone Emmett" Edward growled at his brother.

"Oh, I'm just kidding around. You know that right Bella?" Emmett asked giving my an innocent look

"Yes I know" I told him. Even though he enjoys embarrassing me in front Edward, I really didn't mind. He just seemed like a big goof ball.

"See Eddie, I told you"

"Don't call me Eddie. And where's Jasper?" Edward asked

"Oh, he's talking with dad. After that he's going to take a nap. I told him I'll take the first shift then he'll take the next one." Emmett explained

"Sounds good to me. Are you going to stay in here or are you going to stay outside the room?" Edward asked

"Oh well, I think I have to stay in here. I don't want to get in the way of anything" he motioned at us with his big hands "But I really don't want a nurse to accidently bump into me whiling making their rounds. But don't mind me. You may continue your game. I'll just be an awesomely sexy fly on the wall." He smiled.

"Bella, I think we should get some sleep while we still can. Emmett can be a real tool and I would like to finish this game on an actual date." Edward said in a low voice so Emmett wouldn't hear.

I smiled. He really wants to take me out on a date!!!!! _Okay, Bella. Keep it cool, he watching you_….

"Okay, I'm really am tired but I'm too nervous to sleep. Those black roses really freaked me out. Did I tell you that's what he gave me the night HE almost killed us?" I didn't know if his dad told him that

"Yes, I know" Edward said through clenched teeth

"I didn't mean to upset you, it's just I don't think I can sleep" I grabbed his hand again and intertwined out fingers.

"You didn't upset me Bella. I'm just angry this is happening to you. But please stop worrying."

"Yeh! You have a big sexy guy right here watching over ya babe" Emmett added

I laughed at him. "Oh, I know. Wait till I tell Rose you were here." I told him. He just smiled while continuing to watch Rose sleep.

I looked at Edward. "Are you going to sleep?"

"Yes, I get the last shift. I'll be right here though. I promise I won't let go of your hand all night." He kissed the outside of my hand.

"I trust you" _in more ways than one_. I thought the last part. Didn't want to scare him off

"Good because I would never let anything bad every happen to you…now get some sleep Bella and have sweet dreams" He replied

Edward leaned in to give me another kiss. I instantly felt his lips brush mine. Hmm. I love the feelings of his lips on mine. Right when I pulled his neck closer---

*BANG! *BANG! *SMASH! (window smashing) *BANG!

*AAAHHHHHH *NNOOOOOOO!!

"HELP!!"

"GET _HIM_!!!!"

"…"

"Sir he got away!"

"GO AFTER HIM NOW!"

I was lying on the floor with my bed lying to the side of me. Edward was lying down with me, but he was facing away from me. I could feel the blood coming down my head and I began to feel dizzy.

Oh God! What Happened?

Everything went by so fast.

All of a sudden I heard the worst sound of my life

Silence

I could no longer hear Alice or Rose's heart monitors…..

***

**A/N: Please Review!!!**

**Roxy**


	14. Intermission

Intermission

Hello Lovies!

I know it's been a long time for this next chapter and I'm sorry about that. But know that I'm ready to full out continue this story.

So if you don't mind reading M rated stuff, go check out the 'trying to escape outtakes' posted on my page. It gives Rose and Alice's past on how they became orphans. The last chapter is by an 'unknown' source. Who is he? Well he's our attacker! So if you want to get in his head and see the extent to his obsession to Bella, then go check it out! Oh and be sure to re-read chapter 8. I wrote this outtake specifically to correlate with it. Hope you love it!!!

Well my awesome readers, I hope you all stick with me on the rest of this rollercoaster ride because things are about to get really interesting in the next fear chapters. And since you all have been so patient and amazing…I'm gonna give you all a teaser of chapter 14:

_There is this cliché: when something truly tragic happens to a person, the earth stands still. That every moment of the tragic event happens in slow motion_

_Well, I have had quite a few tragic events in my short lived life to say that the cliché is total bullshit. _

_Though the reflection of the event afterwards may have seemed like slow motion, the actual event is extremely fast. Almost like a blink of an eye._

_One moment I'm sharing an amazing conversation with the best guy I have ever met and the next I'm on the ground bleeding profusely on the hospital floor… _

_I was lying on the floor with my bed lying to the side of me. Edward was lying down with me, but he was facing away from me. I could feel the blood coming down my head and I began to feel dizzy._

_Oh God! What Happened?_

_Everything went by so fast._

_All of a sudden I heard the worst sound of my life_

_Silence_

_I could no longer hear Alice or Rose's heart monitors….._

"_Alice! Rose!" I yelled_

"…"

"_Alice! Rose!"_

"…"

"_Alice Brandon! Rosaline Hale! You two need to answer me NOW!" I half sobbed, half yelled._

"…"

"_Al-_

"_Shh Bella. I need you to be quiet" Edward whispered. He was still lying away from me. His head was peaking at the end of the hospital bed that was covering us. I want him to face me. I need to see his face and know everything was okay._

Well, there ya go. Hope you loved it and this entices you to come again for the next full chapter. Much love,

Roxy

P.S. If the outtakes reaches 20 reviews by Monday….I'll post chapter 14 Wednesday, that's a promise!


	15. Attack

Chapter 14: Attack

There's this cliché: when something truly tragic happens to a person, the earth stands still. That every moment of the tragic event happens in slow motion….

Well, I have had quite a few tragic events in my short lived life to say that the cliché is total bullshit.

Though the reflection of the event afterwards may have seemed like slow motion, the actual event in and of itself is extremely fast. Almost like a blink of an eye.

One moment I'm sharing an amazing conversation with the best guy I have ever met and the next I'm on the ground bleeding profusely on the hospital floor.

_I was lying on the floor with my bed lying to the side of me. Edward was lying down with me, but he was facing away from me. I could feel the blood coming down my head and I began to feel dizzy._

_Oh God! What Happened?_

_Everything went by so fast._

_All of a sudden I heard the worst sound of my life_

_Silence_

_I could no longer hear Alice or Rose's heart monitors….._

Loud sirens where going off all around the room. I saw blinking lights going on and off. I could also hear loud screams outside from nurses and patients. I didn't care about any of this

"Alice! Rose!" I yelled

"…"

"Alice! Rose!"

"…"

"Alice Sue Brandon! Rosaline Lynn Hale! You two need to answer me NOW!" I half sobbed, half yelled. My head is aching. I was blinking back tears, waiting for one of them to respond

"Ali…Rose…?" I sobbed

"…"

"Al-

"Shh Bella. I need you to be quiet" Edward whispered. He was still lying away from me. His head was peaking at the end of the hospital bed that was covering us. I want him to face me. I need to see his face and know everything was okay.

But he didn't and I panicked. Even though blood is still falling freely down my face, I had to know what the hell is going on

"I need to know if they're okay, please God tell me they're okay…." I cried. I can't even concentrate on my own dizziness and pain in my left shoulder; I need Alice and Rose to be okay.

_Oh God Please! _

The loud buzzing of the alarm was going off and the loud screams didn't compare to what I'm feeling right now

_Oh, this can't be happening!_

Alice and Rose are everything to me. Oh God! What about Emmett? Jasper? Is Edward okay? He's not even facing me!

"Everyone…I think everyone is…okay Bella. I can kind of see them, well Emmett on the ground behind Rose's bed. Emmett is covering them until we know it's safe for us to…to get help" Edward told me. He kept his voice low, and even though all hell is breaking loose outside this room, I could hear the absolute worry in his voice. I know he doesn't know if they are really okay. That just made me worries even more concrete.

"Ed-

"Bella, I need you to be quiet right now. We don't know what's going on outside this room. _HE_ might come back…" Edward said that last part through gritted teeth. I don't need to see him to know he's angry.

I wonder if he saw our attacker….if he knows who he is…..I'll have to wait and ask him later. There are more important things to tend to. Right now I'm just so scared. I started violently shaking.

"P-Please….turn around…I…I need…you…" I cried. I need to know he's okay. I feel like he's hiding from me. Like he doesn't want me to see how badly hurt he is.

"Bella, the bed landed on me. I think….I think my leg….well…it's either severely sprained or broken. Give me a moment to readjust it so I can roll over, okay?"

Oh no! He's hurt. He's badly hurt. He's hurt because of me. More tears started to spill over. I kept feeling hot liquid flowing down my face but I didn't know which where blood and which were tears. Either way, I felt even dizzier. The adrenaline is starting to wear off and I feel very faint.

"Oh…Ugh…okay. That's better." Edward moved the bed subtly off his left leg and started to turn around towards me. Mid way he saw my face and his eyes widen. "Bella! You're bleeding!"

My eyes widen when I saw him. I reached my hand and placed it on his forehead where there was a big gash. I gently stroked it.

"You…too" I cried. He's really hurt. This is all my fault.

"I'm fine Bella. You're _really_ bleeding though. Here" Edward shuffled around and lifted his shirt over his head. I know now was not the time to stare at his chest, but I did. I have never seen a more perfect body…well except for maybe Jacob….but that's different. Edward was perfect in another way and I suddenly felt an urge to run my hands down his chest. Sadly, my head hurt so much and I really can't concentrate on anything else right now.

"Lean in closer to me Bella, but please do it slowly and don't move your neck….better yet, just don't move" Edward scooted closer to me and wrapped his t-shirt around my head. I winced. It hurts. My head is throbbing. "I'm going to put some pressure on it to stop the bleeding, this might hurt a little more" Edward added more pressure and I let out a small whimper at the feeling. My head really hurts.

He was so close to me. I could see all the worry in his eyes. I followed those eyes to the floor around us. My eyes widen. Blood was covering the floor. That is all my blood! My head started feeling light and the room started spinning again.

I started to feel very disoriented. Where are Rose and Alice? Are they really okay? Why haven't I heard from them?

Edward added more pressure and I could feel more blood soak through his shirt and onto my face. He wiped the blood away from my eyes.

I just stared at him trying to stay calm, but I can't. The mixture of the blood, chaos and fear made me start breathing rapidly. I looked at Edward with wide eyes as I tried to get a breath. I felt myself heave for a gust of fresh air, but it's not coming. Edward stared back at me with a scared expression. He didn't know how to help me. His resources are limited. I just continued heaving. My heart pounding outside my chest and I know I'm going to die. This is it. I'm going to have a heart attack.

I could tell Edward is freaking out. He can't get up to get me help, so he just leaned closer to me and pressed his lips close to my ear. "Bella, everything is going to be okay. I promise. Please…just take some deep breaths. I need you to take a long….deep…breaths…like…this…" He grabbed my hand and placed it on his chest. His heart was beeping fast too.

I tried to slow my breathing. Edward kept on whispering in my ear, reminding me how to breathe slowly. I tried to follow suit. Slowly, I started steadying my breathing to some form of mildly normal.

"Hey Ed-Edward, you …o-okay man?" Emmett loudly whispered just loud enough for us to hear. My heart skipped a beat…he's okay…I think.

"Yeah. How are you and the girls?" Edward whispered back. He didn't take his eyes off of me while he spoke. He leaned his face close to my ear again and told me to stay calm. I nodded my head waiting for Emmett to talk.

"Huh, there okay. I…I know Rose's sh-shoulder is popped out of s-socket. I…um…I kinda…threw her on the floor to cover her…she landed on her side and I…I heard it pop man. But she's taking it like a champ." I heard a kiss noise. He must have kissed her. I waited for him to continue. "I covered the three of us behind Rose's bed…Alice…Alice has some cuts on her from when the window shattered above her. But the both of them will…we'll be fine."

"That's so good to hear Em. How are you? You…you don't sound too good" Edward asked. I can tell he's worried for his older brother.

"Well, I…um..ha…got shot in…my arm when I threw myself at..at..Rose. Don't worry man…I'm good. You can say it's the complete…definition of a…a flesh wound. How are you bro?" Emmett asked. I couldn't believe it! He got shot in the arm and is just shrugging it off saying he's good. Hell, I've been shot a couple of times and I know it hurts a LOT!

"I'm doing okay, it's Bella I'm worried about…"

"Oh no! Bella what's wrong with her?" my eyes started to close but I could recognize Rose's voice anywhere, even though it was a faint whisper. Thank God she's okay.

Suddenly I heard a loud crash at the door and Edward's hold quickly became stronger. My eyes were still closed and I sighed against his chest. I'm just really sleepy right now; I don't want to be bothered by anything else. The constant ache in my head seems to ease as I rapidly drift off to a complete numbness of nothing.

"Everyone okay? Edward! Emmett! Where are you boys?" Dr. Cullen's loud voice resonated around the room. I could hear his muffled feet scurrying across the debris on the floor. I wanted to tell him Edward and I were behind my bed on the floor but in all honestly I just wanted to sleep.

"Dad! Over here, Bella is bleeding all over!" Edward's voice broke. This is the loudest I've heard him talk since this happened. He held the shirt onto my head because I couldn't hold it up myself anymore. Everything around me just started to get all fuzzy, voices sounded far away and the pain seemed to drift off of me.

I felt movement around me and Dr. Cullen's voice, "Bella, can you hear me?"

"Dr. Cullen, there's three more over here. It looks like your son has a gunshot wound to his left upper arm."

I don't know if I imagined it or if Carlisle really did say it, but I heard a muffed 'fuck' Then he yelled out, "Call all the nurses to this room and get to these people tended to immediately and Nurse Boyd, make damn sure this floor is in complete lock down. I don't want anyone leaving or coming onto this floor, is that understood?"

"Yes, Dr. Cullen" the nurses said in unison.

"Bella I need you to open your eyes and look into my flashlight" I didn't open my eyes. I willed them to open but my body was not communicating with my head apparently. It's like I'm in the deep end of a pool and want to surface to get some air but I couldn't make it to the top no matter how hard I frantically peddled up.

I did see a flash of light for a second before it was gone. The pressure of the shirt on my head was gone too. I heard more of Dr. Cullen's voice commanding the room around me but I couldn't hear it anymore. I did feel it when Edward's body heat was gone and a sudden prick in my thigh spread throughout my body. That's when the beautiful cover of darkness hit me, I totally welcomed it.

IIIVVVIII

Before I even opened my eyes I felt the throbbing in my head, I guess that feeling wasn't going away. I decided to take in my surroundings before I fully woke up. I heard the chirp of the birds outside and the random car noises sweeping past the hospital, and I also heard the heart monitors. The constant beep noises of my heart monitor were incredibly reassuring to me. The consistent noise is now associated with life and the beeping told me that I am; in fact, alive…that my girls are alive….Pavlov would be proud of my associations.

I opened one eye and looked around. It looked like Rose was in Alice's bed and they were playing cards. I pulled my hands above my head and stretched as I released a good yawn.

"Good evening sleepy head," a very forced cheery voice said. I looked up to see Alice smiling at me and Rose starring

"Hmm….you guys….um…ok?" I asked. My head still hurts so much and talking only makes it throb even more. I couldn't take this pain anymore, I pushed the nurse button. It didn't take long for Nurse Boyd to show up

"How can I help you dears?"

"Um…my head…it hurts…so much." I whisper.

"I understand, I'll add more morphine to your IV. Your headaches will be more pronounced now that you're awake." She patted my knee, wrote on my form at the foot of the bed and left the room.

I looked over at the girls and tried to get my voice back, but it was too hard. My throat felt all croaky and my head couldn't stand any loud noises, heck, the damn light from the hallway is making my head ache more.

"What happened? Oh…how long…did I sleep?" I managed to get out.

Rose, thankfully, understood and softy whispered loud enough for me to hear, "You got fourteen stitches in the middle of your heard, there was blood pooled all around you. God, we were all so worried about you. You lost so much blood they had to give you two transfusions because one didn't take well to your body, you where even in the ICU for two days. Don't you remember that?"

I thought about it for a while, but no. I don't. "I'm sorry…I really don't remember anything…but the shooting." I sighed. Finally I was graced with another nurse with a needle full of the miracle drug that will make me feel better. I smiled at her as she filled my IV and she quickly left. I soon felt the slight burn go through my veins. This is some good stuff.

"Yeah, Dr. Cullen said you wouldn't remember because you were so drugged up but I was hoping you would. Edward said there were moments when you where coherent enough to talk with him for a bit. Well, not _completely_ coherent. He said all you ever asked was if we were all okay and begged him for his forgiveness…" Rose put her head down and Alice reached over and started to rub her back. I guess Rose started crying. God I bet she was sick with worry for me. I took a long look at her beautiful face and noticed bags under her eyes and she also had a sling over her shoulder.

I looked over at Alice and noticed she also had bags under her eyes. Her normal chipper and quirky persona is completely gone only to be replaced by a somber and fearful 17 year old girl. The rest of her little face and arms that I could see had little band aids all over, it's probably where she was cut due to the glass.

Starring at both of them just brought tears to my eyes. _My poor girls_.

"I'm so sorry this happened." I covered my face and winced when I touched my bandages a bit. I couldn't help crying though. These attacks are just so fucking unfair!

"Sweetheart, don't cry, we're okay." Rose soothed.

It didn't work for me though. We are not okay; actually, we are far from okay.

"Please tell me what happened? How did HE get in here? Did they catch him?" I asked.

"Bella, please calm down. Look, Carlisle and Officer Webber told us that our attacker posed as a patient with a head peace wrapped around him, so they didn't even see a description of what he looked like aside from the fact that he is a Caucasian male about 6 feet tall. The security cameras show him sneaking out of our floor by using a wheelchair and acting as a patient in a hurry. No one knew who he was because he set off a few alarms and it was chaotic everywhere. He got away Bella." She looked up at me with teary eyes, "He just got away again."

Of course he got away…that's just the story of my life. One tragic event after another

I sighed. "What happened to the boys?"

"Jasper was knocked out when he was doing he shift of look out. He just has a bump on his head but otherwise he's fine," Alice explained. "Emmett got shot in his arm but luckily the bullet went in and out of him, so he's fine, he just has a bandage on his arm. Edward is fine too, he just got a big bruise on his thigh from where the bed landed on him. Everyone is fine Bella, you're the only one that got it bad."

Putting my face in my hands I took a couple of deep breathes. I'm glad they are okay but I can't believe HE got away…again! Oh, when is this just going to end?

I saw the motion when Rose put her arm around Alice before she asked the million dollar question. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't know what to do. I mean, our attacker came to the _hospital_ with a gun. I don't know what else this guy is capable of. Help me girls…please just tell me what we should do. I just can't take all this pressure of this decision," tears start falling from my eyes, "I will never forgive myself if something bad happens again because of my s-s-stupid f-fucking decisions." I hiccup.

"Shhh, Bella calm down. We'll figure something out. I kinda have a plan."

I sniffled and looked up at Alice, a little shocked that she has a plan.

"Well, I was thinking we should just leave for our new house, like now. I mean, we may still be a little banged up right now but we can all walk fine. No one but Dr. Cullen and the boys know where we are going, that way we'll be safe there. I really think our best bet is to leave here and go to our house."

Rose rubbed her shoulders, "I think that's a good idea Alice."

"I do too," I told them. "Are we going to tell them who he is?"

"No!" both girls said in unison.

I looked at them shocked. I really thought they wanted to tell the police who he is.

Rose explained, "Maybe he'll leave us alone if we just keep our mouths shut. I don't want to anger him anymore and once we move we'll have the boys with us a lot of the time and Officer Webber lives in the same neighborhood where we'll be staying at, so I think we should stay quiet on this"

"I agree." Alice added, "Plus, honestly? I don't think his identity will help us any. If he wants us, he's going to come after us no matter who knows who he is. All revealing his identity will do is bring back some of you old drama and piss him off and we definitely don't want to do that. I just want to move out with you girls and forget all this ever happened."

I nodded. "Me too."

"So, let's get a hold of Carlisle to see if he'll discharge us and we'll get the hell out of here."

IIIIVVVVIIII

After a long day, the girls and I are finally settling down for bed. The room is dark and there's a soft hum of commotion going on outside our room. I feel relieved though. Our talk with Carlisle earlier made me feel a little more at peace.

Carlisle agreed to discharge us early so we could move to our new house. He did have a one condition…and I hate this condition…but he wanted us to see the hospital psychologist before we leave. I hate shrinks, we've had countless of them from the orphanage (due to our childhood 'trauma') and none of them helped me or the girls. But he said we could leave tomorrow night if we see her, so we agreed. I'm just so ready to leave this hospital.

I heard the door open but I figured it's just another nurse, so I didn't open my eyes. But when I felt a pair of lips press against my forehead I smiled. I looked up and saw Edward. He ran his hand through my hair and bent down again. I lifted my head up to him and brushed my lips across his. There was no hesitation when I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me. I nibbled a little on his bottom lip causing his hands to tighten more in my hair.

Too soon I felt him pull away. I whimpered a bit and tugged on his neck a little more. He chuckled and gave me one little chaste kiss before he stood up. I sighed and put my arms by my side. Edward kept a nice smile as he grabbed his chair and sat right next to me.

"Hello"

I smiled, "Hi."

"How did your day go?" He shifted a bit and reached for my hand, interlacing our fingers together.

"It went okay. I had to make a deal with your daddy today…"

"Is that right?"

"Um-hmm"

"And what exactly is this deal about?"

"Well, the girls and I have to see some shrink tomorrow but then we get to move to our new house"

"A shrink?"

"Yeah, you know…a psychologist" I wrinkled my nose as I said that word. He laughed though.

"You have a problem with them?" he raised his eyebrow

"Yes I do. I don't like them. In reality, they are just noisy over opinionated people."

"Dang, that's a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"No, not one bit. I've seen a lot of them and they all come in a dime a dozen. None of them have ever helped me or the girls."

Edward's face fell at my comment. "You all have been through therapy before?"

"Yeah, I did once I hit the orphanage. The girls have gone a couple times before they met me."

I looked at Edward and noticed his face seemed a bit hesitant, so I let him off the hook, "Go ahead and ask me."

"Why did you girls have to go to therapy?"

"Well, we are orphans, so we had to see a counselor since we lost our parents. But Rose, Alice and I have a past they considered 'special cases'." I used my hands to air quote.

"We all come from very violent pasts, so we were forced to go to psychiatrists, psychologists and go through all sorts of psychoanalysis. None of it worked for us, so once we hit thirteen years old, we were old enough to deny the care."

Edward started rubbing my cheek with his left hand while keeping his right interlaced with mine. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that."

"It's okay; we were so young. It's just, having to re-share everything that went on in my past was just depressing. I didn't like it and I know the girls didn't too. We were just happy to stop. But your dad was insistent that we talk to someone, so we are. I told him I'm not going to promise to keep going because I won't."

"Bella, would it be too intrusive if I asked what happened to you when you were a little girl?"

"It would."

"Ok, so I won't ask." He gently smiled. "But if you ever want to tell me, please do. I really want to know what happened and maybe help if I can. We both have been through the loss of our parents so I hope you can feel free to talk in me about it."

I ran my hand through his wild bronze hair and smiled. "Thank you."

He leaned down and captured my lips. I sighed and pulled him down to me, keeping my hands in his hair. I lighted tugged on his scalp right when I opened my mouth. I felt his tongue on mine and just melted. I tangled my tongue with his and just enjoyed to lovely taste that is Edward. He has this sugary minty flavor that's just intoxicating.

Edward pulled away a bit but didn't stop. He slowly trailed opened mouth kisses down my neck and all the way down to my collarbone. I leaned my head up to give him more room and started to rub on his scale encouraging his actions. He stayed kissing and licking my collarbone for a while until he slowly worked himself up again. Edward surprised me when he sucked a little on my neck right next to my jaw. It felt so good.

I turned my face a little and caught his lips with mine. He kissed me a few more times before he stopped and leaned his forehead against mine. I held him close to me, not really ready for us to part yet. I smiled when I noticed he didn't either.

I felt him shift a bit before he said, "It's getting late, we should get some sleep. Umm, who's going to help you and the girls move your stuff from the orphanage to your house?"

"I guess we are just gonna rent a truck and do it ourselves."

"I don't think so. How about I call my brothers and we move all your big stuff. Like your bed and dressers. So that way u just have to worry about packing you clothes later. Cool?"

I thought about it, it really would help us a lot if they carried our hard stuff but we have to do something for them too, it's only far.

"Only on one condition…" I smiled

"More terms huh? I thought you would be done with making deals…."

"Nope." I laughed. "I'll be fine with you guys moving our stuff if you let us cook you a nice dinner."

"I can easily agree to that, although my mother wouldn't be too happy letting us big guys have you girls cook for us since you're not a hundred percent okay yet"

"We're just fine. Plus, Rose and I are suckers for cooking and Alice loves to play hostess, so I don't see a problem in that"

He looked at me for a while but when he saw that I was serious about this he stuck his right hand out to me and I shook it.

"Okay, let's get some sleep Miss Swan. It seems like it's going to be a busy day tomorrow for the both of us."

I smirked at him. "Okay Mr. Cullen"

I pulled him in for one more kiss and laid on my side facing him. He shifted a bit, leaning back on his chair; I gave him one of my pillows so he could be more comfortable. He smiled as he put legs up with mine on the bed. He kept his hand in mine and I laid my head down on my pillow.

"Goodnight Edward."

"Goodnight, sweetheart."

**I hope all you lovely readers are still interested in this story. I know it's been a while since I've updated but I'm totally determined to write this story all the way to the end. So, stick with me and please show me love and review!**

**-Roxy**


	16. The Call

Chapter 15: Moving On Quickly

The morning went on without much fanfare. We all got up early and had our breakfast with a very tired Dr. Cullen. He was running late and wasn't able to eat with his wife that morning. It was nice eating with him and the girls. I got to find out how funny he is. Turns out Emmett gets his sense of humor from him. I had trouble eating my biscuits and gravy because he was making us laugh so much.

Since it was Saturday, Emmett came by early to take Rose to the gym before her morning meeting with Dr. Hall, the psychologist that was going to see each of us. She kissed my cheek before she left, telling me she was going to be okay. I know Rose hates these people as much as me and I wonder how much she's going to tell Dr. Hall.

Alice's appointment didn't start until noon, so she called Jasper to take her outside for a bit. She wanted to talk 'strategy' with him, as so she says. Really she just wants to tell him where to put our furniture in our new house. She's taking total control of what goes where in the house. Poor Jasper doesn't know what he's getting himself into. She tends to change her mind every other minute.

As for me? I have to make _the_ dreaded call. I've been putting this off all morning, instead opting to just watch some mindless TV and reading a bit from my new Chuck Palahniuk book. But now the time has come. I don't care how dramatic this sounds; I really really don't want to make this call.

Quickly, I dialed his extension number before I lost my nerve and just hung up forgetting the whole matter. I mean, I do have other things to worry about. But I digress, the phone operator asked me for his track number and I dialed it in. Too soon, the phone started ringing.

"Hello?" a deep manly voice answered. It's pretty intimidating.

I cleared my throat, "Um, yes may I speak to Private Black?"

"One moment please." I heard click over and I waited.

I never understood the reason for music playing when you're on hold. There's really no point to it, it's not like its good music that you could groove to. Like this song, who cares if 'you fought the law and the…law won.' Stupid song.

I heard the click on the phone and a very authoritative voice spoke, "Private Black speaking."

He sounded so formal. I smiled, he's come a long way from my slang swinging pup.

"Hey Jacob. How's it going?" I asked. It's best to begin our conversation with a personable line opener, either that or try to start off with a joke…and my knock-knock jokes are limited…

"Yeah guys, in just a minute." He sounded so preoccupied. Poor guy. "Sorry Bells, I'm fine honey. It's really hot over here though, but otherwise I'm doin' alright" he laughed. "So what's up with the impromptu call?"

"Well Jake, we're um…moving faster than we thought!" I exclaimed. Maybe the happier I sound, the less of a wiser he becomes

"That's great Bells…why?" he asked.

"Well…umm…see…" I stuttered.

"Just spill it girl. You know you can tell me anything and I really can't be on the phone too long here. I promise not to get mad at whatever you have to say" he snorted.

"Okay, well…umm…wewereattackedagain" I gasped. "Dr. Cullen thinks it would be best if we move to the house early. No one knows where we're going to live. Well, except for Governor Goodman, Carlisle, his family and now…you." I let out a breath. I kind of don't think he understood me, I spoke so fast.

"…"

"Um…Jacob you there?" I asked. For some reason this silence is starting to get me nervous.

"…"

"Jake?"

I heard a gust of air let out over the phone.

"Are you hurt?"

"Umm…"

"Isabella Marie!" His voice laced with seriousness. He knows I hate it when he called me that, it means I'm in trouble.

"Umm…not anymore?" I told him. It sounded more like a question than statement.

"What do you mean not anymore?" he asked roughly. I could hear the exhaustion and frustration in his voice.

"Something fell on my head when we were attacked again. Nothing is wrong with me. I just got fourteen stitches on the top of my head…but really Jake I'm fine."

"No Bella, you are not _fine_" he sighed. I could almost see him rubbing his face a little too rough with his big hands. He sighed over the phone, "Bells what's it going to take? I mean honestly, what are you waiting for?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? Huh, I mean are you just waiting for _him_ to fucking kill you or one of the girls before one of you talks?"

I just stayed silent. I hate it when he talks to me this way

"What? Speechless? Bella …I'm sick of all this shit, I really am. Look, I know you're not stupid, hell! You're probably the smartest person I know! But this is fucking stupid Bella!" he paused. I just stayed silent on the phone.

"Bells, I love you…I mean I really love you…I hate…no…it's _killing_ me knowing someone is hurting you. You're so defenseless and on top of that you're refusing help! You're either seriously deranged or too scared to talk to someone. Please…I know you're not scared of me…I can really help. I can protect you girls. I need you to tell me who's doing this to you…who's hurting you honey?"

I'm speechless. Tears kept falling down from the moment his speech started. I need to say something.

"Jake…I love you too…I really do. But I'm so scared right now. This…attacker is not some random sick guy. He'll never stop. All he does is hurt the people I love…I can't do it Jake. I can't talk. It'll only get worse if I do." I sobbed hysterically, hiccupping with every gasp of air I could get.

"Shh, settle down for a bit. Take a deep breath or something Bells." I took a deep breath. "Look, it won't get worse. Telling us his identity is a good thing. We would all know what to look for. We can-"

I cut him off. "What? Post his picture all over the television, newspapers, and the internet? Come on Jake! He'll know the second I tell and go into some form of hiding. Think about it, he's obliviously patient as hell. He'll wait Jake…he'll wait for _that_ moment. You know, the moment when out of nowhere, he suddenly pounces. Then he'll get us Jake! He'll get me _and_ the girls with vengeance! Trust me…we c-can't t-t-tell anyone" I cried.

The phone was silent for a minute until I finally heard him let out a big gust of air. "I hate hearing you cry Bells, it give me a bad feeling in my stomach. But I'm not going to lie to you, I seriously don't agree with you on this. Keeping your mouth shut on this is really stupid."

"I don't think so Jake, I honestly think I'm being smart on this. I don't want to piss him off, he's dangerous"

"Please, he's some fucking pussy with a gun. Just give me five minute alone with him and we'll see who the real man is." He growled. To anyone he would sound scary, but not to me.

"Yeah yeah Jacob, you're such a macho man." I snorted.

"For sure Bells and don't you forget it girl." I could just see him pound on his chest King Kong style.

I giggled, "You're so Indian."

He laughed in return. "Whatever pale face."

That made my heart clench. "I miss you so much."

"I miss you too honey. Sorry Bells, but I really have to go now. I'll talk to you later. Look, I'm glad you're moving sooner, I just wish it was in better circumstances. I'll see you in a couple of weeks though. Okay? Live and in person."

"Okay" I smiled. I can't wait to see him.

"I'll see you soon. I love you Bells."

"I love you too Jake" I exhaled softly. I leaned over and hung up the phone. I took a quick glance at the doorway and right in front of me is Edward. The look on his face is painful.

He looks shocked, hurt and…betrayed?

"Was that Jacob?" he asked smoothly. A little too smooth for my liking.

"Yes. He's just worried about me," I stretched my hands above my head careful not to touch my stitches. "I guess it's safe to say that Jake can be a little 'intense' to say the least" I let out a strained laugh

Edward didn't laugh.

"Oh" he replied. He grabbed his chair and just stared out my window. We just sat there in uncomfortable silence for a couple of minutes before he spoke

"Where are Alice and Rose?"

"Well, Rose is with Emmett. He's helping her with her shoulder; it's been bothering her a lot today." I checked the clock on the wall, "Actually, she should be in her meeting with Dr. Hall right now." I sighed. "Alice is with Jasper right now, going over where she wants the furniture and dressers to go in out new house. I swear she's going to be a hellcat for you boys. She's picky about this kind of stuff."

Edward smiled at me, "I bet she is."

"Yeah, you should've seen her for spring cleaning." I shook my head, "No lies, she's always insists on moving our furniture everywhere. She could never make up her damn mind until someone yells at her and leaves." I laughed. "She won't be gone long though. Her session with Dr. Hall should be around noon."

"What time is your session?"

"In about four hours, I'm not looking forward to it at all." I gave a thick yawn at that last part.

"Tired?"

"Hmm, yes I am" I sighed. I know I shouldn't be, since it's not that late in the day, but I am. I haven't really been sleeping full nights since I've been here. It's hard to have a good night's sleep in a hospital.

"You should get some sleep. I could go for-"

"No, please don't leave. I feel….really worried about this whole therapy thing. I really don't want to go. I don't like those head doctors messing with me. Plus, it seems like me and you haven't really spent much time alone together during the day," I looked up at him.

"I feel that way too. But you really should sleep. It's best to be wide awake for your therapy session, Dr. Hall would not be happy if you fell asleep when your suppose to be talking about your 'feelings' or something." He smiled at me, "We have plenty of time to hang out."

He began to get off his chair, but I don't want him to leave. His body language screamed tired too and I know he hasn't been sleeping much too lately.

"Sleep with me?" I spitted out without thinking. My eyes widen when I processed what I said, "No…well yes…I mean…that's not what I meant, I-"

"It's okay" he chuckled at my now really red tomato face. "I know what you meant." He pulled his chair closer to me and leaned his head back into the chair closing his eyes.

I shook my head at him

"Edward, you have bags under your eyes. When's the last time you slept in a bed?"

"I was just in one a week ago" he yawned.

"Sleep next to me" I patted the spot next to me on my bed.

"Bella, the bed's small. I'll squish you" he made that amazing crooked smirk he has and kissed my forehead. He probably thinks I'm just being silly.

"Well, fine" I huffed and turned around on my side, my back was facing him. I wanted to hide the smile on my face because I know he's gonna cave.

"Okay, you asked for it." He pulled himself up using my bed rail and limped closer to me. "Scootch over…"

Victory immediately surged through me and I had to resist the urge to throw both of my arms in the air and have a Hiro Nakamura moment by yelling "Yatta!"

I moved my body to one end of the small bed; I was still facing away from him. I know he wouldn't have to sleep on his bad leg if he stayed on that side of the bed. I felt the bed dip behind me.

It didn't take long before Edward got in a comfortable position that didn't hurt his bruised leg. He wasn't really touching me though. It's as if he didn't want our elbows to rub together. I wanted to ask him why he didn't want to put his arms around me. Maybe he doesn't really see me that way. Sure we kissed a couple of times and at the most he's touched my hips once. But that's the furthest extent to the physical aspects to our…what? Relationship? Is that what we're in? Are we considered to be officially dating if we haven't really been on a date? I mean, we did spend some time outside this room….if you count the gym.

At the rate of my internal questioning, I was never going to get my nap in. I turned my head over my shoulder

"Edward?"

He smiled back at me. Without a word, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled my body back into his chest. I parted my legs a bit and he nudged his left leg between mine. This was my idea of heaven.

"Hmmm" he sighed. He buried his face in my hair –careful not to touch my bandage- and kissed the back of my neck.

I smiled. Thought I briefly wondered how I'm suppose to sleep like this? I have never slept in a bed with a guy before…okay except for the couple of times with Jacob but….those times were different because nothing ever really happened between us. He's just my security blanket of sorts.

But here I am with Edward. This is a completely different situation. I'm…kind of _with_ Edward…I think. I was never _with_ Jake, that's for sure. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

"Asleep?" Edward whispered.

"Nope."

"Want to talk?"

"That'll keep us awake" I pointed out. The point of this is to sleep.

"I could sing a bit, though I'm no Fred Ester, I can carry a tune." I felt him smiled against my neck

"Oh, I'm sure you sound just fine." We sat in silence for a bit, I would love to hear him sing but the words would keep me awake. "Can you hum me instead?"

"Of course"

He started humming something beautiful. It quickly made my eyes droopy. I was easily falling asleep, but I wanted to also hear the rest of his song. I was fighting a losing battle though.

The last thoughts I could comprehend was my impending appointment I have with Dr. Hall. I wondered what skeletons she's going to try and get out of my closet.

**Hope you liked the chapter!**

**-Roxy**


	17. Dr Hall

Chapter 16: Dr. Hall

I woke up without any fanfare, thank goodness. I didn't dream but that means no nightmares which is a blessing. Edward's arms are still tightly wrapped around me. I smiled into his embrace. Thankfully, I woke up before him. I was able to turn in his arms and manage to not wake him up. I just took my time to watch him sleep for a little bit.

This guy is truly gorgeous. He is by far the best looking guy I've ever seen. His jaw is usually set and tight when he's awake, but now when he's asleep it's more relaxed…he even showed a bit of a double chin…which is too adorable in my opinion. His hair is flat and over his forehead instead of the usual spiky and styled up look he goes for. His pouty mouth is a bit agape as he breathed in and out. I wanted to kiss him but I knew I shouldn't.

I glanced at the clock and I know I have to get ready fast. My appointment with the shrink is in fifteen minutes.

Stealthy is not my middle name, but I am going to try and get up without waking Edward. He really hasn't been sleeping much since our second incident. Poor guy thinks danger is in every corner.

Very very carefully, I took off the blanket on my side and moved his arms off me. Which was easier than I thought, I actually think it would have been sweeter if he tried to hold me closer but really his arms just went limp to his sides.

I still don't walk totally normal yet. I still have to walk slowly and in all honesty, I can't walk for long durations of time, my body aches too much afterward. But I can make do. With much effort, I walked (slowly) in the bathroom. Taking in my appearance made me groaned very unlady like. I hate wearing this stupid bandage on my head; it makes me look like an idiot. I'm glad Carlisle said I can take it off today and just replace it with something smaller that doesn't need to be wrapped over my whole head.

Picking up the comb I try to untangle the mess that is my hair. Honestly there's no fixing it but it looks better than what it did earlier. After applying a bit of face powder and chap stick (Jasper brought it over for us) I was ready to go.

I held on the rails as I walked out the bathroom. Very slowly I left the room, after glancing at a very asleep Edward, and made my way to the Counseling Center. It wasn't too far and I need to walk more anyway. Hopefully, I'll be good as new in two months in time for the new semester at school. The last think I want to do is limp around with a backpack on and impatient students running around me.

I saw the desk clerk. She has dark black curly hair, it looks really good on her. She's typing away on her computer when I approached her, "Hello, I'm here to see Dr. Hall please?"

She smiled kindly at me. "Of course, you must be Isa-um, I mean Bella." She laughed, "Both Alice and Rose told me you like to be called by Bella."

I smiled back at her; I bet they would correct her. Funny girls.

"Right this way Bella, she's all ready to see you." The clerk opened the door for me and I walked in completely nervous.

A very very _very_ tall lady stood up from her desk and gestured to a sofa for me to sit.

"Good afternoon Bella, please have a seat."

I managed to sit down without hurting my head. I looked up at her and _oh my_ that woman is tall. She has to be at least 6'4 _without_ heals…and by golly she is wearing heals! It's a bit intimidating. Her short faded red hair was perfectly sided to the left and her glossy blue eyes where easy to see past her wide rimmed glasses.

"Hello" I greeted. I looked around her wooden looking office with all her certificates hanging around. I wonder if she has to post them or if she's just really proud to have them….

She cleared her throat and got my attention back to her.

_Here we go_, I thought. I internally rolled my eyes. No matter how tall she is, I really hate these shrinks.

"So, how are you feeling today?" she asked

"Okay, I guess. My head hurts a lot, guess that's what happens when they lessen the pain medication dosage. So I don't get addicted or dependent on them or whatever other reason. You know, they really should just let me gradually get off my meds rather than just assume I'm-"

"Bella, please…you're rambling. Why don't we narrow down your questions from now on?"

I can't believe she just said that. She should be happy that I'm even talking at all. Gosh, I don't want to even be here. I don't **need** to be here!

"Okay, well since we don't know each other I like to start our first day with a game. This is a way for me to get to know you better. This is how it's going to go: I'm going to ask you only yes or no questions. You don't have to elaborate anything. Just a simple yes or no answer. Please, only answer truthfully. I can assure you that I'm not here to judge you and this game is just a good way for me to get to know you a bit. There are no alterior motives…just a start. Is this going to be okay with you?" she asked

I just nodded my head.

_I don't want to ramble_, I thought bitterly.

She smiled at me as if she heard my thought. She cleared her throat again and begun:

"I do have some general knowledge of you from your record here and information your orphanage has given me, so I'm going to start easy. So, do you enjoy playing in the band with your friends?"

"Yes"

"Do you like singing publically?"

"No"

"Do you like playing your instrument?"

"Yes"

"Do you enjoy the crowds?"

"No"

"Do you enjoy the music?"

"Yes"

"Do you enjoy the attention you get onstage?"

"No"

"Do you ever get nauseous because you're onstage?"

"Yes"

"Before the concert?"

"No"

"After?"

"No"

"Intermission?"

"Yes" I always puke during intermission. It hurts like hell but at least the butterflies slow down. Rose and Alice think it's the funniest thing ever; watching me run offstage and into the bathroom to hurl. _Jerks_

"Do your friends know how you feel?"

"Yes"

"Do you play for the money?"

"No"

"Do you interact with other band members?"

"Yes"

"Have you ever drank alcohol?"

"Yes"

"Have you ever done illegal drugs?"

"…yes."

I put my head down. I have never told anyone that…except for the girls and Jacob, they were always with me when I did. We usually do that kind of stuff together, nothing serious…just pot.

"Did you do drugs repeatedly?"

"Yes"

"Have you quit?"

"No"

"Do the girls know about this?"

"Yes"

"Do you keep many secretes away from them?"

"No"

"Do you keep many secretes away from other people?"

"Yes"

"Have you ever thought about suicide?"

_Where the hell did that question come from?_ This is too random. I hesitated.

"…yes"

I whispered. I have **never** told anyone that. Ever.

"Do you understand what suicide fully entails?"

"Yes."

_I've seen it_.

"Do you have the means to commit suicide?"

"Yes"

"Do you want to commit suicide now?"

"No"

"Is that the truth?" Dr. Hall looks at me seriously.

"Yes"

"Do you believe suicide tendencies can be genetic?"

"Yes"

"Do you think that might just be an excuse for one's actions?"

"Maybe"

"Isabella?"

"No" I admitted.

"Good. I see your getting uncomfortable. Let's change this up a bit….Have you ever kissed a boy?"

"Yes"

"Are you a virgin?"

"Yes"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"…no?"

It sounded like a question. Truthfully, I'm not sure what Edward and I are now.

She smiled. "I understand. Do you like him?"

"Yes"

"A lot?"

"…yes."

_Maybe too much too soon._

"Do you fear being around men in general?"

"Yes"

"Old men?"

"Yes"

"Teenage boys?"

"Yes"

"Edward is different?"

"Yes"

"I understand. The Cullen's are an amazing bunch. But you cannot fear all men because of a select few. Please try not to generalize a whole group based on the minority. Now, Do you have any male friends…excluding the Cullen boys?"

"Yes"

"More than one?"

"No"

"Are you two close?"

"Yes"

"Have you ever had more than just 'friend' feelings towards him?"

"…yes"

"Is he in your life now?"

"Yes"

"Do you still have romantic feelings towards him?"

"No…"

"Good Bella. You're doing great. I'm going to change the subject a bit. Are you excited for your new school?"

"No"

"Excuse me dear. Let me rephrase that, are you excited for the academic factors schools provide?"

"Yes"

"Are you excited to meet more teens your age?"

"No"

"Is it because of the gossip that will surround you girls?"

"Yes"

"Do you fear it?"

"Yes"

"Do you fear being ridiculed?"

"No"

"Do you fear the rumors you girls with ignite?"

"No"

"Do you fear the all the above for the girls?"

I nodded. Imagine means a lot to Rose and Alice.

"Very well Isabella. You're doing wonderfully. I'm very pleased how honest your being. Since our time is almost up, I'll let you ask me any yes or no questions. Anything at all and don't spare my feelings. This is a way for us to level the plain field. I'm not in any way better than you Bella and I know this. I just want to help you in any and every way possible. I need you to understand that no one will know what is said in our sessions. Confidentiality is a must in my profession and I'll never break that. So no one will know from me what you say, but feel free to share what I tell you…in fact, I encourage you to do so. Okay enough of that, do your worst Isabella" she smiled at me.

I smiled back. _Time for her to get a piece of her own medicine_

"Are you married" I asked.

"Yes" she answered.

"Do you have any kids?"

"No"

"Is that by choice?"

"Yes"

"Do you like kids?"

"Yes"

"You just don't want to have any?"

"Yes"

"Yet?"

"Yes"

"Eventually?"

"Yes"

"Oh. Um…have you ever done illegal drugs?"

"Yes"

_Okay, she's done it too._

"Were you an addict?"

"No"

"Did many people know about your…activities?"

"No"

"Did you have sex before marriage?"

"Yes"

"Did you marry for love?"

"Yes"

"Any regrets?"

"No"

_Okay, this has been bothering me. I need to know if this was intentional or not. I have to ask this:_

"Did you purposely not bring up my parents or orphan status?"

"Yes"

"Does my file explain my past?"

"Yes"

"Are you going to later ask me to elaborate what's in my past?"

"Yes"

I put my head down. I don't want to talk about that….I have to know though.

"Is that why you asked me about suicide?" I whispered.

"Yes"

A tear fell from my eye.

"Am I a lost cause?"

"No." She said strongly.

"Do you think I'm crazy for not wanting to tell authorities who our attacker is?"

She paused. "Crazy? No. I believe you have your reasons."

"Am I doing to right thing Dr. Hall?" I whispered again. Tears started pouring out of my eyes. I'm starting feel so over whelmed and alone.

Dr. Hall looked at me for a few seconds before setting down her notebook and walking towards me. She leaned down to me and wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug.

"Bella. I think you're trying to do what's right for the girls. I believe you love them more than yourself. That you would do whatever it takes to keep them safe. I also believe your actions are for them, not for yourself. Isabella, you're an amazing young lady and smart as a whip. The 'right thing' is very subjective you know. You are going to do what _you_ feel is right for _your_ own situation."

She sighed and smiled down at me

"But I do want to help you make your right decisions. Bella, I want you to reflect on all your decisions; if you feel all the good reasons outweigh the bad ones…well then you know you're doing what's best."

I hugged her tighter. I didn't realize I was crying so much until I noticed the wet spots on her shoulder.

"Our time is up for today, but I want to see you on regular bases. I've talked to Dr. Cullen and he agrees. I rented a space in Forks, so I could see you girls for your sessions. I plan on seeing you each once a week on separate days."

My eyes widen. "Forks?" I screeched

"Yes. Don't worry; I'm the only one in this office that'll know where you live. I will not document that information on any notes, so it's untraceable. Trust me; I fully understand the severity of your situation. So, I'll see you every Thursday at 3:00pm. Is this all okay with you?"

I shook my head, "No, Dr. Hall. We cannot afford this. Our insurance from the orphanage does not cover psychological treatment to this magnitude. I'm not all that comfortable with the fact that you're going to have to make trips just for our treatment"

"Don't worry about any of that Bella. Dr. Cullen and I have already taken care of all your problems in that regard" Dr. Hall tried to assure me.

"It's all too much to ask from you" I told her

"No it's not Isabella. If it make you feel any better, the girls have already agreed to this…and I've already rented my new office space in Forks" she laughed.

"Okay" I whispered. There seems to be no way out. Why argue anymore…

"Good. Now, I like to give you something." She turned to her desk and opened a drawer. She took out a notebook. "I want you to keep this journal. Fill it out with anything you want. You could write about your thoughts or just how your day is going. You could even write things you want to discuss with me. I won't ask you to let me read it, but I can if you like. This is just a place where you can feel free to write anything you wish, without any restrictions. This is just for you."

"Thank you" I took the notebook from her hand. It looks like a book. The book is plain dark purple. It suits me.

"You're welcome. Oh and I took the liberty of writing my name and cell phone number on the first page. If there is anything you need, feel free to call me anytime. I'm rarely detached from my cell. Now, I'm going to give you some homework. I want you to write down what your expectations are for our time together. Just write what you want to discuss or what you think I should discuss…anything really. Okay, do you have any questions for me?"

"No. Thank you Dr. Hall…for everything. This is defiantly above and beyond" I told her.

_I guess not all shrinks are bad_. This one seems pretty okay. Defiantly the first one to make me open up and even cry.

"You're very welcome Bella. I'll see you very soon. I hope you enjoy your new house."

I smiled and opened her front door. Right when I looked out into the waiting room and I quickly saw Edward. He was sitting in a chair with his head down in his hands.

_He's waiting for me_.

I shut the door behind me and he jerked his head up. We locked eyes for a moment and I smiled at him.

I quickly, _without falling might I add_, walked up to him. I stretched out my arms as he stood up from his chair. I stood on my tip toes and wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in a big hug.

I felt him smile against my shoulder and he tightened his grip around my waist.

"How did it go?" He asked

"A lot better than I thought. I really like her" I sighed into his chest.

"I'm glad. She's a real nice lady" he started rocking us side to side.

"That's right, you know her. I gotta ask you something. Did you tell her we're….talking?" I said. I didn't want to look at him so I kept my face in his chest.

"No Bella. You should know by now that hospital gossip spreads like the plague around here. I'm sure it's hard to not notice the infamous Dr. Cullen's son is sleeping in a chair holding a beautiful girl's hand every night…don't you think?" He held me tighter

"Guess I didn't look at it that way" I laughed, feeling better.

"Guess not. And what do you mean about….talking?" he asked teasingly

"Well…um...we are talking, right?" I scrunched up my face and looked up at him.

He chuckled. "We've done more than 'talk' Bella." And wiggled his eyebrows to me.

I blushed hard and leaned against his chest. We sure have…

"Well then, what do you call us?" I have to know.

"I do hate the label 'boyfriend' but that's the most accurate label I can think of. So, do you consider yourself my 'girlfriend' Bella?"

"Yes" I whispered

"Good. Then, for lack of a better word, we're boyfriend/girlfriend. Funny, now please don't make fun of me for this Bella, but I've never had a girlfriend….I honestly don't know what I should be doing."

"I don't either Edward" I told him. I've never had a boyfriend.

"Well, I guess we'll have to figure this out together" I felt him smile; he cheek is right above my head. I can tell he's being careful not to touch my bandage.

"I like it though," I held him even tighter, "I don't want anyone else."

He kissed my forehead and took my chin under his index finer

"Me either."

IIIVVVIII

A/N: Hope you all like it!

I don't know if this 'yes or no' question strategy exists or not. I just thought this was a cool way for some free association questions…it's harder to lie when your asked quickly and expected to answer quickly so I thought this would be a cool tool to use.

You all get a little more glance at Bella before the incident. What do you guys think? Think she's going to go back to her old ways once she leaves the hospital and lives with her best friends? She is young you know….

-Roxy


	18. Moving

Moving

Two words: MOVING SUCKS!

I hate moving more than I hate shrimp…and trust me, I _hate_ shrimp.

I haven't even started and I already have a headache. Plus it doesn't help that Carlisle has me off my pain meds too. But I know, I just _know_ the kind of tedious stuff we're going to have to do today. We're gonna have to pack our junk…take our junk to the car….take the junk out of the car….put the junk into the house…and unpack the junk. That's a lot of work and I'm not looking forward to it.

We finally got discharged from the hospital. I say finally, but honestly we should've been staying longer. Since the attack and all the stuff that followed after that, Carlisle hooked us up by getting us out of here early. However nice that is, we had to agree to certain conditions. One, the boys have to help us with all of the heavy furniture (no argument from me) and two is that we have to see a shrink weekly (Ugh).

Now, even though Dr. Hall was a nice lady…she's still a bit of a nuisance. I mean, her main goal is to get into our heads and believe you me that is _not_ a happy place. After thinking about it, I really feel more off the edge having seen her. All I can think about is my past and how screwed up I really am, but I don't want to think about those things. The only real thing I liked about our session was the journal. And in all honestly, I could have just bought me one at Wal-Mart or something.

Edward and Emmett already left to the orphanage. They rented a big moving truck so they wouldn't have to make more than one trip. We gave them our key and we're meeting them there. Jasper is giving us a ride in Carlisle's 2010 Mercedes-Benz SLK300 Roadster (Jake would _love_ this car).

This is really the first time I've ever got to really look at Jasper. Most of the time, Edward was around and I was preoccupied with him then to give Jasper longer than a first glance. He had ear-length wavy blond hair. He's about 6'1 and has a thin frame like Edward. Japer's jaw is just as strong and he has thin lips. He face looks pretty rugged, the kindest feature he has is his bright blue eyes. Otherwise, he looks intimidating.

He's only 18 years old, but he already has three tattoos on his arms that I can see. I bet he has more. The one on his left forearm is a knife that could put Rambo to same. It's black and grey and has red blood dripping from the end of it. Also, I could see some numbers on the end where the blood is. The other says 'Cullen' that goes up to his right forearm. It's black and in thick lettering. The last one is on his right hand, his knuckles spell out 'HOPE'

I wonder what his story is. I bet Alice knows some of it. I'll have to ask her. All she's told me was that he's the only one of the boys that is blood related to Carlisle, but he adopted Jasper when his was eight years old. She always tells me how funny and sweet he is. Plus he's always treated us well and helped us out whenever we needed it. Even though I haven't spoken to him much, I know he's a good guy.

Alice is sitting in the front with him while Rose and I are in the back seat talking about our session with Dr. Hall.

"What is with her height? I mean seriously, she looks like she can eat babies!" Rose exasperated.

I laughed, "I know! I thought the same thing. Only I called her an Amazon warrior woman. I bet she could kick Xenia's ass!"

Rose turned pink she was laughing so hard. "I bet she can!" she giggled. When Rose calmed down she added, "She seemed okay though."

I shrugged, "Maybe. They all seem okay at the beginning. I bet she'll ask us the hard questions later."

I looked over at Rose and noticed she just sighed and looked at her window. I wonder if Dr. Hall already asked her some hard questions. That could only mean one thing. "So, did you tell her about your parents?" I asked her.

"Yeah, she asked me about them," her eyes downcast from me.

"What did you tell her?"

"Not much. We just played 20 questions. I asked her something and she asked me something. She just asked me if I remembered my mom and dad. I told her I did, very well. I explained how I use to help my dad in the garage and how my mom hated getting oil stains off my dresses," she ghostly smiled.

I smiled back and held her hand. Rose told me her whole story a long time ago. She said her parents were amazing. She was their only child and they spoiled her rotten. Rose keeps a picture of them right by her bed on her nightstand. She likes to see their smiling faces right before she goes to sleep.

Her mother was beautiful; Rose is a spitting image of her. Carol Hale use to be a Miss America pageant winner. She had long blond hair and a warm smile. Rose said she would always brush her hair at least forty times on each side. Every morning I'd catch Rose doing the same thing.

Timothy Hale, her dad, had dirty blond hair and cute dimples. Rose said he was a car salesman, but that he preferred to be under the hood of a car rather than sell them. He taught her everything he knows about them. I think that's why she loves working on cars and reading automotive magazines so much. It makes her feel closer to him.

"Did you talk about…" I raised my eyebrow at her; I didn't want to say his name.

She looked at Jasper and saw that he was too involved with what Alice was saying to pay attention to us in the back. "Royce?" she whispered.

I nodded.

She looked at her lap and shook her head, "I didn't want to talk about him. Did you tell her about…"

"My mom?" I whispered.

She nodded.

I shook my head at her, "That's none of her business."

She sighed, "I assume we're going to have to spill the beans sooner or later."

"I prefer later."

"Hey? So, I was thinking…" Alice turned over and looked at us.

"Uh-oh" I mumbled.

"I heard that, jerk. Anyway, I was thinking….since we are getting our own rooms now…eek!" she literally bounced in her seat, "I'll never get use to saying that. Sorry, I mean since we're getting _our own rooms_ that I would take the liberty of putting yous twos rooms together. You know? Cause I'm generous like that."

Jasper laughed when he saw that Rose and I rolled our eyes through the rearview mirror. I knew better than to argue, smartly enough, so did Rose.

I shrugged, "Whatever."

"Um…hey, there's a grocery store off the freeway. Want me to stop by and get some boxes. I don't think Em or Ed got any." Jasper asked.

Rose spoke up, "yeah, we should. I didn't even think of that."

"Okay."

Jasper pulled up to the grocery store while we waited in the car. I would have offered to go with him but I didn't really want us to use up all our strength too soon by walking around too much. We were going to have a busy afternoon packing. Thankfully, he didn't ask us to go with him.

Alice turned fully around from the front seat. "So, what were you two whispering about just a bit ago? I wanted to listen in, but I didn't want Jasper to feel left out. Everything okay?"

I looked at Rose then back at Alice, "We're good. Just talking about our session with Dr. Hall."

"Oh gosh, she's freakin' huge!" she laughed.

Rose and I joined laughing, "I know!" we both said at the same time.

Our laugher soon died down and Alice raised an eyebrow at us, "So you two get any heavy questions too?"

We nodded our heads.

"She did for me too. Luckily, I'm not as bad as you two suckers," she pointed at her head. "Not many skeletons in my noodle. This is a perfect example of the benefits of amnesia, no memory of too much heavy."

Rose smiled, "You got a point there."

"I do. I wasn't too shy either. Right from the beginning I told her: 'listen, I know you know about my past. I know you know about what James did to me, so yeah, I was beaten by him and I'm over it. Rose and Bella helped me through it and I get that he was a creep who liked to hurt me. I know it wasn't my fault and that's that' afterwards I asked her where she got her shoes. I mean, how would anyone find high heels _that_ big!"

I looked at Alice with wide eyes, "You told her that from the get go?"

She smiled, "Well sure. I mean, she already knows from my records the orphanage gave her. That whole incident wasn't as bad as your guys' incident. Your stuff is very personal and really really traumatizing. Mine just feels like I got beat up."

Rose shook her head, "That's not true. You thought he was your friend…and Alice? Honey, he almost killed you. I remember the day I met you like it was yesterday, how could you get over that? You were so small and crying and begging me never to hurt you…I don't get it. You're just _over_ it?"

"I know it might sound weird, but it's true. I stopped having nightmares of him years ago. He's gone and I won't ever see him again. I bet he's off at some mental hospital, hopefully getting the most neglected medical care known to man. Don't get me wrong, I hate his guts and have no pity for him whatsoever. But I'm not ruined because of what happened to me. I healed and his actions caused me to find you two. I feel like I won in the end," she smiled at us.

Rose and I leaned over and hugged her. Jasper opened the door with us in the middle of our threeway hug.

"Wow, now that's something I like to see. Alice, call me your big daddy right now," he said.

My mouth dropped, I looked over at Rose and she wore the same expression. I looked over at Alice and she threw her head back in laughter, "You sick man!"

He chuckled a bit and shrugged. "The guy at the register said he'd meet me in the back and will give me as many boxes as I want, but the boxes are crushed so we'll have to put them back together. I bought some moving tape, so that's no problem. Plus they should all fit in the trunk that way, so yeah."

He started the car and we went to the back of the store. The register guy was wearing a nametag that said 'Adam' on it. He helped put the boxes in the trunk with Jasper. He kept making eyes at Rose, all she did was roll her eyes and look away from him bored by his attempt. When Jasper noticed he clearly got annoyed. He shoved him the last box a bit too hard then closed the trunk after 'Adam' put it in. Jasper gave him a dollar and we drove away.

"Sorry that douche bag was eyeing on you Rose. If I woulda saw it sooner I could have put a stop to it," Jasper apologized.

"No worries Jazzman, I know I'm hot. I get that all the time. It's _you_ that has to get use to it," she smiled brightly at him, wiggling her eyebrows.

He laughed, "Yes ma'am."

We drove all the way to the orphanage listening to the greatest hits of Cake. There awesome. Soon enough we were there and I saw Emmett and Edward putting one of our bed frames in the moving truck. Jasper parked right next to them.

The girls and I took our time walking over to them, not wanting to rush ourselves…we're still healing and all.

"What's up pretty ladies!" Emmett exclaimed looking right at Jasper.

I laughed.

"I'm all man, Em. What did you guys get done?" Jasper smacked him on his back.

"We got all the beds and mattresses in the truck. We didn't want to do the dressers and nightstands yet. I bet you girls want to get your stuff out before we do that," he smiled.

"Cool, we'll get started." I went over to Edward and kissed his cheek. He smiled and finished drinking out of his water bottle.

We all went to our room while the boys carried all the crushed boxes up the stairs.

"You know? You could have warned us that you're on the third floor of this place. It was a duzzy getting those beds down three flights of stairs," Emmett pointed out.

Alice just smirked at him, "But you're such a strong guy, dude! I thought you woulda handled it just fine."

Jasper smiled back at his brother, "She's got you there."

"I didn't mean it was impossible, me and Ed got it. But man, it was hard work!"

Rose wrapped one arm over his shoulder and kissed his cheek, "Don't worry, us girls will make you guys nice meal tonight to make it up to you."

He smiled back at her.

We worked pretty smoothly. I put my ipod on my dock and put in on shuffle. I have all kinds of music. Most of it was alternative, punk or metal…perfect for moving. The boys were taping up the boxes while we put clothes in the ready boxes.

Must I remind you why I hate moving?

I honestly didn't ever realized I had this much clothes.

_Thanks Alice_.

I had a black sharpie and made sure to label which boxes belonged to whom. When the boys finished putting the boxes together, they started packing up our books from the bookcase. Edward said it would be easier to take the bookcase downstairs if they dissembled it. Luckily, Emmett brought his tools with him.

Rose went over to our closet and stayed back there. I knew what she was packing, but wasn't sure if she was trying to hide it or not. Though she wasn't being that discrete, I could hear the bottles clinking together.

Emmett heard it too, "Whatcha you packing back there Rose?"

"Just our booze, now shhh I don't want Ms. Daniels to hear," she loudly whispered.

Edward looked up, "You girls have alcohol?" he whispered towards her.

Rose peaked her head out of the closet and looked at him, "Duh! We're in a band, man. We're always at after parties and they always let us take some bottles home. I have enough to start up a nice bar at our new place. Now, keep it down. We hid this for years, don't get us caught now."

She quickly dunked her head back in the closet. Edward looked a bit off and he walked over to me where I was sitting Indian style packing the stuff that's inside my nightstand. He sat next to me.

He whispered, "I didn't know you all drank."

I smiled a bit shyly up at him, "We do occasionally. We don't get drunk and stupid or anything like that. But we do like to relax after a show."

"Oh. My. Gosh. Bella! Tell him what you do during our intermission at our concerts! Tell him now or I will!" Alice laughed.

I turned bright red, "Alice!" I hissed.

"Fine, Edward! She totally throws up! I swear it. Right when we finish our first set, we go back stage to get a drink and retune our instruments for the next half of the show, then all you see is Bella running to the closest trashcan and heaving. Oh gosh, it's the funniest thing you've ever seen. I mean, seriously, we've musta done like, what? Thirty shows by now, yet she always always always does it! It's fantastic!" she laughed hysterically and I could clearly hear Rose laughing from inside the closet.

"It's true, at first we were worried. But then, it just kept happening. Now we just make sure to have a toothbrush and toothpaste with us at every concert," Rose giggled.

I glared at both of them, "It's not that funny."

Edward smiled at me, "I bet it kinda is."

Alice just laughed harder and I throw a pillow at her.

I don't know why I always get sick in the middle of the concert. I'm fine before and after but right when I get off the stage during the intermission, I totally lose it. My nerves shake and I can't hold it. I just figured my nerves get the best of me for some reason…but I can't let the girls win this one over me.

"Well, Alice has this weird tradition. Right before every concert, she lights a candle and pours a shot of vodka for the almighty Jim Morrison picture she has over there and asks for us to have a good show." I point over to her little Jim shrine. Complete with a framed picture of his infamous pose, you know the one? The black and white one with his arms wide open and starring at the camera all dreamily like. Right under the picture is a 'Doors' shot glass, currently empty at the moment.

"And Rose, she likes to use the same drum sticks at every concert. If she can't find them, she refuses to play. Also, she continuously listens to Alessandro Moreschi over and over again the night before the concert. She always listens to it to help her sleep. So, you two don't tell my I'm the weird one," I may have shamelessly scoffed a bit.

The boys laughed at our little tirade. And Jasper looked impressed, "Alessandro Moreschi?"

Rose peaks out of the closet and smiles at him, "I love his voice and appreciate his talent. Even though what his parents had done to him as a boy is some seriously messed up stuff. We're lucky to have his music available to us."

"Blah blah blah, Rose. Bella is right, it's weird. You don't even know what he's saying," Alice added.

"I don't have to! I love it, end of story."

I agreed, "Yes, end of story. We all have our things."

"You chicks are nuts man!" Emmett laughed and started taking our bookcase apart.

"I agree," Edward kissed my forehead and got up to help Emmett.

I blushed and shook my head. We are a bit…weird.

We all worked comfortably and came up with a good routine. As soon as we finished a box, the boys would load them up in the truck. We were almost done. The boys took off to the garage to load up our musical equipment in the truck. Alice had to finish packing her clothes, Rose was finishing up taking down her wall posters, and I was working on my pictures. I have a lot; most of them are stuck up on a framed cork poster board I have on the wall. I have so many of the girls and I at concerts; both playing them and attending them. There are a lot of us girls with Jacob and his friends. We always had a lot of fun with them…I can't wait to see him again.

I only had four photos in frames though. One is of Jacob and me practicing on our guitars in Billy's garage. Billy took this picture of us. We were both wearing t-shirts and torn jeans. We smiled up at his dad posing like we were in AC/DC.

Another one is of us girls when we were about 7 years old. It was the year we met. Rose was in the middle of Alice and me. We were all looking up and smiling brightly towards the camera. We were lucky enough to have been bucked in the same room together. Usually, Ms. Daniels puts two people to a room but she didn't have that much room in the orphanage when I showed up. She put me here with them because we were the same age. We bonded automatically and when Ms. Daniels offered to move me, I declined. These girls are my family.

The other two are my most precious photos I own. One is of me as a baby with my mother and father. My parents looked so young in this photo. They got married straight out of high school. My father is a handsome man. He was big and strong, the perfect build for being an officer. He had dark brown hair, chestnut eyes and a smile that'll ease your heart in a second. My mother was his opposite. She had blond curly hair, bright blue eyes, and big red lips. They were both looking at me smiling in the photo.

The last photo is of my mother. She told me it's the last photo my father ever took of her. She was lying on the floor playing with me. My father stood above her and had her smile up at him. She looks beautiful with her hair sprawled around her like a halo. Her smile is the brightest I've ever seen. After my father died, she never smiled like that again.

Tears started welling up in my eyes as I wrapped newspaper around that photo. I remember what's hidden behind the frame. I both miss my mother so much and hate her for what she did…

"You okay Bella?" I heard Edward ask behind me.

I sniffled and nodded my head. Without word, a pair of strong arms wrapped around me and all I did was lean my head back against his shoulder.

"Is that your mom?"

I nodded my head, rendered speechless.

"She's beautiful."

I nodded again. He leaned in and kissed my watery cheek as he held me close to his chest.

I wish I could just explain to him how much I love her and hate her at the same time. They are two totally conflicting emotions, but I can't help to have them. At one side of the coin, she was this amazing mother who loved me and my father. On another side, she was a selfish abandoner who left me all alone…

I closed my eyes as more tears fell. Edward was sweet holding me for a while until my silent tears went away. I just have to deal with my duel emotions. I sniffled up and turned around to face Edward. I smiled a bit at him and hugged him close to me. I said thanks to him in his ear and walked out of him arms to finish up.

I saw Rose at the corner of my eye and she mouthed 'you ok?' I simply just nodded my head and continued what I was doing.

The boys finally got the last boxes and started taking them downstairs. Rose, Alice and I just stayed behind to look at our empty room. This room held us together for a little over ten years. We met here so long ago and now we're leaving here together. Alice pulled her camera out and we scrunched our faces simultaneously and took our last picture of us in this room. We went downstairs and hugged Ms. Daniels.

"Thank you so much keeping us here and letting us have our beds," I squeezed her close to me.

She sniffled a bit, "You're so welcome. After all you girls did for this place; it's the least I could do. We appreciated your donations for so long and so sorry you're not going to stay with us."

Rose hugged her next, "We'll still do what we can for this place."

My heart stopped, I hopped she didn't mean she wanted to still play in front of people anymore. With what happened to us…no…I'm done with that. I was planning on selling our musical equipment after we got settled in. I'll have to talk to her about it later.

Alice held her close and had tears in her eyes. Even though they weren't that close, Ms. Daniels is the closest thing she's ever had to a mom figure, "I'm gonna miss you so much."

"We're gonna miss you here too. Now, you girls do not forget where you came from and please visit this old lady every now and then."

We smiled and promised we would. We met the boys outside. Alice handed Jasper her camera and asked him to take a photo of her, Rose, Ms. Daniels, and I in front of the orphanage. As soon as he took the picture, we said our last goodbyes and drove off.

Jasper was driving with one arm on the steering wheel and the other outside the window. Alice was in the front looking at his cds with a scowl on her face.

"What?" he finally asked her, after she less-than-subtly sighed out loud.

"Country? Jazz everything here is all country music. I like me some Garth Brooks and Shania Twain every now and then…but this is just nuts."

"There's nothin wrong with a little country…you can be my rock in roll," he winked at her. I just rolled my eyes, how cheesy!

"That's cheesy!" Rose blurted.

I laughed, "I was thinking the same thing! I swear!"

"Can it you two," Alice hushed us.

"Gouda, that's cheese ladies," Jasper added.

"You high man?" I have to know.

"Nah, just relaxed. I'm glad to put all this stuff behind us. I'm tired of sleeping on hospital chairs and getting my head whacked. I'm glad you all are moving to that new house. It's not that far from us and my dad had the Major Goodman install Ace Security. You girls should be fine there and I'll finally get me some good sleep since I met you." He smiled over at us.

I just felt bad, "Sorry."

He shook his head, "Don't be. Don't get me wrong, it's been exciting and fun getting to know you…especially you," he looked over at Alice, "It would just be nice to get some normalcy now."

I nodded my head, heck yeah I'm looking for normalcy. Give me boring any day! Heck, I like me some boring. I'll take a good book at night on the couch than to go out.

Out of pity, Jasper switched his cd off and turned on the radio. Alice was quick on changing the country station to something more…lively. Breaking Benjamin was soon blasted in the Roadster.

Driving was fun and I laughed with Alice points at Rose while singing, 'You're so cold but you feel alive…'

"This is your street ladies," Jasper pointed out as we hit a nice residential area. When he pulled up to the driveway, I saw the moving truck already there. Edward and Emmett were already starting to get the things out. I gasped at the first look at our new home.

It's perfect! It's a small two story house with two bushes on each sides of the driveway. There's even a tree in front of the yard that looks perfect for a dangling tire swing…just saying.

I could see a brick fireplace running up the side of the house. Without much thought the girls and I ignore the moving truck and walk right inside. The living room has hardwood floors and the kitchen has a black and white tiled floor. The kitchen isn't huge but it's perfect for us. This place already has a refrigerator and a dishwasher (YES!) installed. There's a small door by at the end of the kitchen where a small washer and drier lies.

"This is amazing Bella! Look! Black cabinets and white countertops…this is my dream home!" Rose bounced. Her smile is infectious because that girl never bounces and she is just as giddy as I am.

"Oh my gosh, we could get some red curtains and little towels and table cloths and oh what about red long candle sticks on the tables too! We can have this whole black, white, and red theme in here and then change the color scheme in the living room and OH! Let's go upstairs and see our rooms!" Alice skipped over to the stairs.

Rose just looked at me and smiled as she followed Alice upstairs. Thank goodness it's a carpeted staircase because if it was hardwood like the living room, I would easily break my neck.

"MINE!" I hear on my right side once I got to the top of the stairs. I laughed and followed the noise.

"No way Alice! You do not get the master bedroom! I call dibes on that and I'm the oldest so that's exactly how this is panning out." I walk in the master bedroom and see Rose pointing down at Alice.

Alice is just shaking her head at her, "Just because your older doesn't me anything! I called it just a second ago and you can shove your dibes right up your-"

"Hey hey, chill out. Dang, are you two trying to start a war over this room?"

"YES!" They both yelled at me.

I shook my head. "Can we just flip a coin on who gets this room?"

"What Bella? You don't want this room?" Rose asked

"Honestly, I don't care. You two take the longest time in the bathroom, so it's best if you one of you gets this room. So get a damn penny out and settle this so the boys know where to put our stuff."

Alice gets a penny from her pocket and looks over at me, "You flip the coin. That's only fair."

I throw my hands up in the air, "Whatever."

She hands me the coin, "If its heads Rose gets the room and if it's tails I get the room. Deal?"

Rose looks at me than at Alice, "Deal."

I mock tossing the coin in the air and the girls lean in towards me. When they saw that no coin left my hand, the look they gave me was primal. I laughed at them and tossed the penny, for real this time, in the air. You would think this whole thing was going in slow motion, the coin bounced and spun on the floor…until…

"YES YES YES! In your face!" Rose bounced up and down and pointed at Alice.

"Ugh! I knew we should have played rock, paper, scissors for it."

I just walked out of the room as I heard Rose continue to mock Alice. I went down the left side of the stairs and saw where the other two rooms were. They were on the opposite side of the hallway and in the middle was the bathroom. The bathroom was nice, it had a tub/shower and plenty of counter space for both Alice and I.

I walked into both rooms and saw that they are the same size. Both still pretty big, they mirrored each other with a closet on one side and a window on the other. We'll have plenty of room for our things in here. I heard the boys walk into the house and yell for us.

I went down the stairs and told them that Rose has the master bedroom, Alice's is the room on the left, and mine on the right. They just nodded their heads and went back outside.

Rose and Alice left the master bedroom. Rose's head was held straight up high while Alice was slumped down.

I just laughed at them. _My dumb friends_.

"Alice, your room is on the left side. I promise I'll let you decorate our bathroom however you want, just make sure you leave some room for my stuff too."

"Thanks Bella. At least _one_ of my friends is awesome," she pouted up at Rose.

Rose just shrugged at her and kissed her cheek before heading outside.

I set up my dock first and put it on the floor of the living room. I put my ipod on shuffle again while we all got to work.

Emmett and Edward were putting the beds up in the rooms and Jasper was carrying the heavy boxes of our clothes to each room too.

There wasn't much for us to do right now, since we can't really life anything too heavy, so we asked Jasper to take us to left to the grocery store. We needed to make dinner for the boys and we had no food or dishes or anything really. He dropped us off and gave Alice his cell phone. He said when we were ready to call Edward or Emmett and he would pick us up.

Alice kissed his cheek and we headed towards the grocery store.

Rose has had a bank account since she turned eight-teen; her parents left her quite a sum of money from their life insurance plan. She couldn't touch it for the longest time, but now she can. She has a nice pretty little pink plastic credit card that we were fully intending to use today.

Alice and I are also going to get a little money when we turn eight-teen too. Even though she doesn't know who her parents were, she still got their insurance since she's their last of kin. And since my dad died on the force, I get a pretty good amount of money from that. With all that put together, we'll be fine for a while. We still need to get jobs soon though…I do not want to think of that right now.

I digress.

Going down the aisles with my girls is fun! We stopped off at the appliances and got some pots, pans, silver where, knives, cups, plates, and what not. We were basically starting all over. We had to buy stuff we never thought to buy, like mustard or salt and pepper. Usually the orphanage took care of all this stuff and we took it for granted.

"Look, they have a red blender. It would be cool if we could buy all red appliances," Alice nodded.

"Sure, but we're not getting red plates. Let's stick with the white ones we have."

"Yeah, sure"

We tried not to take too long, but we did. It took us _forever_ to figure out what we're going to cook the boys. Finally we agreed (another coin toss) on making them a simple chicken noodle casserole with a baked potato and steamed veggies. Not the most manly of meals, but easy to make and cheap ingredients.

By the time we finished we had tons of plastic bags full of stuff. We didn't buy everything we needed at once…I did make Alice put the blender back cause we didn't need it right now. But we did just buy the bare essentials and can later build from there.

We called Edward and told him we were ready. We waited ten minutes before Jasper showed up again. He helped us get everything into the car.

By the time we got back to the house, the boys had already got our beds and night stands up in our rooms along with our boxes. Emmett was finishing putting our bookcase back together when I walked into the living room.

"I figured it would be better to keep this down here." Emmett pointed at the bookcase.

I nodded my head and ruffed up his hair a bit. Jasper helped us with the bags and Edward was still getting boxes of books out of the moving truck.

The girls and I were busying ourselves with putting the kitchen together and cooking the meal. We were lucky Carlisle already got us a small kitchen table and chairs, so we don't have to sit on the floor. We are going to have to buy some couches at some point but not yet. We'll be fine for now. I bet I could find a great deal on Craigslist or something.

Once dinner was done we plated the meals and set up the table. I looked at our food feeling pretty proud of myself. We accomplished a lot today and I feel very grown up. Watching the boys file in the kitchen and sit down with us made me feel…older. I feel more mature and adult like, no longer a scared awkward teenager…well maybe I am still…but I still feel older.

"This is really good, thanks" Emmett added as he wolfed down his food. He reminds me so much of Jacob, it's scary.

Which reminds me, "Edward can I use your phone for a sec?"

He reaches in his pocket and hands it over without breaking his eating stride. I leave the table and go into the back yard. I knew Jake would most likely not answer his cell, but I promised to leave him a message as soon as we got here.

I smiled when I heard his voicemail. "Hey you reached Private Black, leave a message."

"Hey Jake, it's me. I just wanted to let you know that we are all moved in to the new house. Well, kind of. We still have a lot to unpack and stuff but we're out of the hospital and here. I can't wait till you see this place, it's really nice. This is Edward's number and can reach me here until I get a cell phone. Alright, talk to you later. Be safe." I hung up the phone and went back into the kitchen.

"Did Jacob answer," Rose asked as she handed Emmett a napkin.

"No, I left a voicemail though."

"I can't wait till he gets here. We're going to have so much fun!" Alice cheered.

Jasper looked over at her and said, "Yeah, well I'm curious to meet this guy too."

"Me too," Emmett and Edward both added at the same time.

After we ate, Emmett showed us how to use the new security system. He told us our code is: 0126 to disable the security alarm. That to set it, all we had to do was hit: #4, before we leave the house. He showed us where the motion detectors are, so that if someone sneaks in the house while we are gone, the alarm will go off. Also, we can set it for when we are all at the house. If we hit: #3, then if anyone bangs on the door too hard or tries to brake in, the alarm will go off too.

This new security information made me feel safer. I didn't want to chance it with _HIM_ on the loose.

When the sun was setting, we told the boys to go home. They wanted to stay to help with the dishes but we declined. They really did a lot for us already today, plus we promised to see them tomorrow.

The girls were saying goodbye to their boys while I walked outside with Edward.

Edward put his hands in his pockets and leaned up against the moving truck. "We have to return this truck before we go home."

"Aww and I was getting all attached to it," I teased.

"Lair, I know you miss the Volvo already." He reached over and pulled me in closer to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Thank you so much for your help today. We couldn't have done it without you guys." I kissed his cheek and further down to his neck.

He hummed, "Your welcome."

I looked up and brushed my lips across his and smiled when he did. I couldn't keep my giggles at bay and he started to poke at my hips. I laughed but he kept his lips on mine.

"You're so cute Edward."

"I know," he wiggles his eyebrows at me, "It just comes so naturally to me."

I laughed again and poked his stomach. He smiled and leaned in to kiss my neck. I tightened my grip on his neck and reached up on my tippy toes to hold him closer….he smells so good.

"I'm going to miss sleeping with you tonight, I've gotten so use to you being there." I told him.

He smiled against my neck, "I know. Me too, but I don't think my parents would be as understanding letting me stay _here_…an empty house with my girlfriend. They didn't mind me staying at the hospital because we were chaperoned, not so much here though."

I sighed, "Damn."

He laughed, "I know. I might sneak out every now and then…"

"Now Mr. Cullen, are you proposing we go against your parents' wishes," I dramatized my words with a southern accent.

He went along, "I reckon I am."

"Alright you two! Time for us to go." Jasper yelled as he walks up the driveway.

Edward quickly kissed my lips, "Goodnight. See you in the morning, my sweet girl."

_Swoon_.

"Yeah okay." I nodded, not sounding as cool as him.

He smiled down at me and kissed my cheek before he backed into the moving truck.

I walked over to where the girls were and they read me like a neon sign.

"Why Miss Bella, I do declare I see some rose red on your cheeks." Alice pretended like she was going to faint.

"Oh you tramp! Did you hear what we were saying?" I hissed, feeling mortified. Did she know we were faking southern accents?

"No, but now I wonder what you two were saying. I was just being a tease."

We watched the boys leave and Rose quickly told us to meet her in the kitchen. She walked as fast as she could up the stairs while Alice went into the kitchen. I took the liberty of locking the door and set up the security alarm. Once I joined Alice in the kitchen, she eyed me.

"So what did you two talk about that has you so on edge," she probed.

I shook my head at her. "Nope, my lips are sealed."

She muttered, "I bet they weren't."

Rose comes into the kitchen excitedly, with her hands behind her back. "Now we have to celebrate our first night in our _own home_ the right way!"

She put her hands out in front of her and we saw a bottle of Jose Cuervo and three shot glasses.

Alice jumped and screamed, "I'll cut up some limes! Bella get the salt."

Since we were all off our meds, I saw no problem with taking a shot. I went into our newly stocked cabinet and got the salt out. Alice was slicing up a lime and handed us each a wedge.

We all licked out hand were our thumps met our index finger and poured some salt on it.

We got in a circle and rose our glasses together, clicking them. Celebrating our first night, in our new home…

Alice said: "To our new kitchen!"

Rose said: "To our new home!"

I said: "To our new life!"

And without thought, we toasted our shot the same way we toast all of our shots.

We all said: "To Taylor!"

We giggled and drank our shot, licked the salt and bit our lime.

This is going to be an adventure.

IIIVVVIII

**I promise to explain the Taylor joke later. Hope you like it!**

**-Roxy**


	19. An Unpacking Reveal

A/N: Lately I've been getting a lot of alerts for this story. I was so flattered that I decided to finish it up for the new readers. I hope the old readers are still curious about this too.

Warning, this is an intense chapter.

-Roxy

Chapter 18: An Unpacking Reveal

IIVVII

"_Do you know what this is my little Izzy-Bella?" he leaned over and breathed right into my ear_

_He pointed a black gun at me. I know what it is, but too scared to say so._

"_N-no." I stuttered, scared of him and hating that he always calls me Izzy or Izzy-Bella._

"_Well my pet, this is a gun." He pointed towards my face. "See…look into this end."_

_I automatically looked at the ground, shivering. I didn't want to look at it, those things killed my daddy._

"_LOOK!" he yelled. I jumped and looked right into the hole in front of the gun. He pulled the trigger and the gun clicked. "See Izzy, these aren't dangerous unless I put one of these in it."_

_He opened the gun, "See, this is a bullet. This bullet makes this gun very dangerous." He put one bullet in the gun, "But then you turn off the safety like this…" he clicked the side of the gun, "now the gun is deadly."_

_He laughed, "hey this reminds me…wanna play a game?"_

_I didn't, "what game?"_

"_It's called Russian Roulette. You know how to play?"_

"_No."_

"_Well its fun!" he leaned towards the coffee table and drank out of the bottle of brown liquid He looked at me, "want to try some?"_

_I shook my head._

"_Of course not, you're a good girl." He drank again then set the bottle back down. "Well, to play you have to spin this dial once, then close the gun like this…then put the gun at your head and pull this trigger. It's so simple." He took another drink from the bottle then pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger. _

_The gun clicked._

"_Whew! Hell yeah! Okay, here's the gun..." he passes it to me, "it's your turn."_

_The gun felt heavy in my hand. My hand shook holding the gun. Frustrated, He wrapped his big hands around mine and he opened the gun. I saw the bullet in the holder again right before he spun the spinning thing and closed it._

"_Now point this end at your head and pull the trigger." He shoved the gun towards my face._

_I stared at him with wide eyes, "but…but…it'll…hurt me, like it did to daddy?"_

"_Don't talk about him. That sack of shit got what he deserved. Look, he was shot four times and you only have one bullet. You have a one in six chance it would fire, that's not bad odds…now, do it or I'll add another bullet every second you don't. Trust me baby; you don't want me to do that, do you?"_

_I shook my head at him._

"_Good. Then do it Isabella." He smiled. His evil grey eyes bore into me. His smile is wide as he took another drink. Watching me excitedly._

_My heart pounded in my chest as my throat went completely dry. My hands shook as I point the gun straight to the side of my head._

"_NO! No no no. Be a good girl and put the gun in your mouth Izzy" He said as he took another drink and unzipped his pants._

_I opened my mouth and put the gun in. I closed my eyes and thought about my mommy and daddy as I slowly pulled the trigger…_

"Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!" I screamed as I sat straight up from my bed. I frantically looked around the room, not recognizing anything around me.

The room is dark and boxes were everywhere. I touched my forehead with trembling hands and I was all covered in sweat. My body shook as tears flowed from my eyes from that horrible nightmare.

Even though I know it was just a nightmare, I still feel unsafe in this new room.

Quickly, I stood up and rushed over to the corner of the room and pressed my back to it. No one can sneak up behind me from here. I sat there covered around boxes, hugging my knees to my chest.

My whole body is trembling while I repeat, "It was just a dream, it was just a bad dream…"

But I knew it wasn't just a bad dream…it was a memory.

_He_ is ever so imbedded in my memory. _He's_ my personal demon that has always and will always find ways to torture me. Tears continued to roll down my cheeks as I tried to do the breathing exercises Edward showed me.

In…out…Inhale….Exhale…

My heart won't stop pounding and I can hear it loudly in my ears like a drum.

"Bella?"

I turn my head turns quickly towards the door and panic seeps into my chest. I cower myself closer to my corner.

"Bella? You awake? I thought I heard you scream…" Rose's soft voice filled the air around me.

I pressed my face closer to the wall next to me as my door started opening. Rose walked into my room.

"Oh Bella no!" she gasped and turn to leave the room.

"Rose, I'm here." I whispered as my heart continued to hammer off.

She gasped and looked over towards my direction. "Oh thank goodness," she put her hand over her chest, "I nearly had a heart attack. I thought you were just kidnapped or something."

I shook my head and put my head down on my knees. I didn't have to look up to know that Rose was coming towards me. She sat on one of the boxes in front of me.

"You okay?"

"Nightmare."

"About _him_?" she raised her eyebrow at the mention of him.

I nodded my head.

"Wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head.

"Okay. Well…since we're up we might as well unpack in here a bit." She patted my shoulder and stood up.

I faintly smiled as I pressed my face into my knees. Continuing my breathing mantra, I can hear Rose working around the room. I am quickly reminded why I love Rose so much. She doesn't pressure me to talk; she just knows I'll go to her when I'm ready.

Rose busied herself opening boxes and putting stuff away. I have nothing to hide from her, so I didn't mind her going through all my things. I did blush a bit when she hid my pipe in my underwear drawer.

It took me about a half hour before I felt ready to get up. I went over to my bed and sat down. Rose was quick to stop whatever she was doing and sit down right next to me.

"He likes guns, you know. My nightmare was a memory he was in. He used to make me play Russian roulette with him. He would threaten to use more than one bullet at a time if I didn't play."

Rose gasped, "I heard of that game. Bella, people have died from shooting themselves in head! What a horrible game. He made you _play_ that?"

I nodded.

"Son of a bitch" Rose grumbled. "I hated him from the first time you told me about him, but now? Gosh, there's not enough malicious works in the English dictionary to describe my loath for that man."

I snorted, "Join the club."

"Well…" she lifted her shirt to show me one of her healing gunshot wounds, "I did get hazed in."

I kinda smiled and lowered my tank to show her my chest where one of my wounds is, "rightfully so."

"What are you guys doing in here this late?" Alice came in rubbing her eyes.

"We're talking and showing off scars. Why are you up?" Rose asked.

"Bathroom."

I stared at them for a bit and then looked around my room. "Wanna sleepover?"

They smiled at me and agreed.

Rose got all the fixings to make a great makeshift bed on the floor to fit all of us on it. Alice got all the pillows in the house…after she went to the bathroom. I helped carry everything downstairs.

I was spreading sheets out on the floor when Alice tossed the pillows around and walked into the kitchen. Rose helped me make a big bed. It didn't take long to set it up. Alice came back into the living room with the bottle of Jose Cuervo at three shot glasses.

"I figured this will relax us more. No more nightmares." Alice looked at me pointedly while handing me a shot glass.

Rose took hers and Alice poured us a round.

Alice looked at Rose and I, "so let's play _I've never_ drinking game."

I shook my head, "No way. You two have done more than me. I know I'll lose this one and end up sleeping in the bathroom floor."

Rose laughed. "Ok ok. Don't fuss Bella. Let's take a shot for Bella's fussiness."

Alice lifted her drink and clinked it with Rose, "Here here!"

"Wenches" I muttered before taking my shot. It felt like hot fire pouring down my throat.

Alice was quick to fill another. She looked over at Rose, "So tell us more about Emmett?"

Rose raised her glass and we followed suit, taking another shot. "He's a great guy. Really funny. He's been through a lot too. He was adopted by Carlisle when he was eight years old, he was the first child the Cullen's adopted. His mother died when he was a baby and his father use to viciously beat him since he was five years old. It took the police years before they caught on. Em said he was violent himself when he moved in with Carlisle and Esme. Emmett was so defensive and quick to anger. Carlisle got him into counseling and anger management programs. None of it worked for him though."

Rose lifted her glass for Alice to fill. She poured us all another and we took it.

"It took Emmett visiting his father in jail to change him. He said his father was so disgustingly mean that Em just laughed in his face. He said he told him that he was a pussy of a man and big joke. Emmett laughed so much the guard escorted him out of the visitation room. When he reached Carlisle, he was still laughing hysterically. Carlisle gathered him in his arms and held him through it. Emmett ended up crying and apologizing to Carlisle for all the mean things he did. He said he never wants to be like his father. He doesn't want to be angry all the time anymore. He made a promise that he will look at the world differently and be happier."

"So that's why he makes jokes of everything."

Rose nodded, "yep, he said he kept his promise to Carlisle and never raised his voice in anger since."

I looked down at my empty shot glass, "does that worry you Rose?"

She sighed and nodded. "I am worried. I told Emmett that I was abused by someone when I was a child. I didn't get into any details, but I told him that if he ever scared me like that, we would be over. He promised me that he's been good for over seven years now. He's a good guy and around good people. I trust him. Plus, he took a bullet in the arm for me…that's a good sign."

Alice smiled, "I think the boys bring out the good in each other."

I nodded, even though Edward has a relatively nonviolent upbringing.

Soon enough, we all snuggled in together with our pile of pillows and blankets on our living room floor. Feeling a bit buzzed made my mind go at ease. Plus it helped that I feel so safe and secure in between my two best friends, sleep came easy.

IIIVVVIII

The boys showed up at the house around 10am to help us unpack. And heaven love them, they brought Egg McMuffins!

"Ooo! I love these sandwiches so much! I'm never up early enough to go out and buy them. I wish they had breakfast all day like they do at Jack in the Box." Alice explained right before taking one out of the McDonald's bags Emmett was holding and biting in…right here in the living room.

I walked over to Edward and kissed his cheek. He smiled and winked at me.

Everyone moved over towards the kitchen when Edward grabbed my arm. I turned to him and he cupped my cheek with his right hand. I smiled and leaned into his palm. His fingers gently ran under my eyes.

"You look tired. You sleep okay?"

"I missed you."

He pulled me in his arms, "I missed you too. I almost snuck out of the house, but Emmett stopped me. He said you three needed the night alone in the house. Plus he said if he couldn't sneak out then I can't."

I laughed against his shoulder, "its okay. The girls and I had a sleep over here in the living room."

"Did you have a pillow fight too?" He groaned.

I snorted and hit his shoulder, "You dog!"

He just shrugged and kissed my cheek. The perv even smirked when he crossed our big makeshift bed from last. I just rolled my eyes and kicked the blankets to the corner of the living room.

We walked back into the kitchen and Alice was on her third McMuffin.

I looked at Alice, "save any for me?"

Alice didn't even flinch. Her cheeks were so stuffed that she looked like a chipmunk eating nuts. I swear, Alice was blessed with her petite body cause she is the smallest person I know, yet she could out eat Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies. Thankfully Jasper tossed me a sandwich before Alice gobbled them all up.

We dug into our breakfast and then decided to finish unpacking our rooms. Jasper went with Alice, Emmett with Rose and Edward with me.

When we were alone in my room, Edward clapped his hands together and said, "What do you want me to do?"

"Well, mind putting up my cork poster on the wall? I have a box full of pictures and thumbtacks too. It should be an easy job." I pointed over to the box by my closet.

He nodded his head and gave my shoulder a tight squeeze before walking over to the box.

I made a quick walk downstairs to gather up the pillows and blankets. I dropped the girls' stuff off in front of their room doors. I didn't want to go in because I could hear some giggling coming out of each room and I don't want to interrupt that.

When I got back into my room, Edward already had the cork poster on my wall by the window. He was just looking through my pictures and tacking them up.

"You have a lot of pictures with this guy." Edward showed me a picture of Jacob and me.

"Yeah I know I do, that's Jacob. I told you about him."

"I remember. I just didn't know this is what he looked like," he frowned.

I smiled at him, "He's hot huh? I know."

Edward looked at me in shock, "I can't believe you just said that to me."

I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "I know Jacob is hot. He's super tall, muscular, good looking and the nicest guy ever." I twirled Edward's hair around my finger, "but I like the way you look more. Jacob and I are just friends. I promise you that, we've never been more than that. You're my boyfriend, I want you." I leaned in a gently kissed his lips.

"Did you ever have, you know, _those_ feelings towards him?" Edward asked as his emphasis the 'those' word made it clear on what he meant.

I wanted to be honest with Edward. "I did when we were younger. He was my first crush on a guy, but that passed when he got his first girlfriend. He used to talk to me about her and the things they did together. I knew then that he only saw me as a friend, a best friend. I accepted it and am happy with how we are now."

Edward held me close and kissed my neck. "Promise?"

I smiled and held him tighter, "I promise. You my first kiss remember? I only want to be with you."

Edward kissed me again and held my hips closer to his body. When he pulled away, he smiled shyly at me. "I don't mean to be jealous. This just means we have to take more pictures of us together and add on to your collection."

"Exactly," I tapped his nose. I kissed him one more time before walking away towards more boxes.

Rose took care of most of my hung up clothes, so I decided to pair up my socks and put them in my underwear drawer. I was very careful not to let Edward see my panties…or my pipe.

"Have there been any girls in your past?" I asked Edward while sitting on my floor putting my PJ's on the bottom shelf of my dresser.

"Umm, not really. I told you about Jessica remember?"

I looked over at him. "No, I don't remember."

He laughed, "Yes I did. I told you Jasper and Emmett got on me to date her. We went out a couple of times, but nothing happened. She wanted more, except I didn't. I didn't really feel an attraction towards her."

"You feel it for me?"

"Oh yeah." He smirked without looking at me. He was just pinning more pictures up.

I laughed, "I do too." I stood up and grabbed another box. "Anyone else? Be truthful because I'm gonna be going to school with these girls soon."

"I can't wait for that. It's going to be a good school year. Full of college applications, football, formal, baseball, prom-"

"You're ignoring the question." I interrupted.

"I'm not. Look, there are some girls that liked me but I didn't return any of their feelings. Promise. Alice might be in more trouble than you."

I looked over at him, "Why do you say that?"

He sighed, "I'm sure she already knows by now that Jasper has had a serious relationship with a girl at our school. They were together for like two years."

"I didn't know that. What happened?"

"Uh, no. I think I'll let Jasper or Alice tell you what happened there. I don't want to get in the middle of that."

"Wait!" I exaggerated, "you brought this up. I want to know now."

Edward just laughed and looked at me. "Sorry. Not my story to tell."

I nodded my head in understanding, I can respect that. Though I am going to get the 4-11 from Alice later. I'm curious about the inked up country boy.

I heard something break over where Edward was and he cursed.

I quickly looked up, "What happened?"

Edward looked apologetic, "I am so so sorry Bella. I dropped your mother's photo. The frame broke. I swear I'll buy you a new frame."

My heart stopped when I remembered what's behind the photo. I got up and walked towards him, "Don't pick that up...you'll cut yourself, I'll get it."

Seconds past in slow motion, by the time I frantically got there Edward was holding a piece of paper in his hand. I didn't even have time to take it away from him when he looked at me with angry eyes.

"What the hell is this Bella?"

I fell to my knees and a sob broke through my chest.

Edward got on his knees right in front of me. His angry expression made his eyes glow a bright green. "Bella, answer me now! Is this what I think it is? Is this a suicide note?"


	20. The Note

_A/N: Warning, this chapter contains tragic events and suicide. It gets pretty graphic, so please read at your own discretion._

Chapter 19: The Note

"Bella, answer me now! Is this what I think it is? Is this a suicide note?"

Sitting on my knees, I clench my stomach and look at the ground as tears pour from my face. My lungs are burning as I gasp for every breath. My heart pounds so loud I can't hear anything else, including the buzzing noise I hear from Edward. It didn't take long for me to feel the familiar warm arms wrap around me, cradling my body against her chest. I know Rose is telling everyone to back off.

I can't look at them. I can't look at any of them. How dare they see that note!

My head snaps up at Edward. He is looking at the note and reading it. I quickly jump up and snatch it out of his hands; thank goodness I didn't tear it.

"You have not right!" I shouted, (taking all the air I have in me.) I gasped loudly, trying to catch my bearings.

I don't need this!

I shoved Jasper out of my way as I feel all eyes on me. I move like a blur outside to get some fresh air. I don't even register where I'm going, but I push the front door open and tuck my note carefully into my jean pocket before bolting out the house. I don't know this neighborhood well, but I need to get the hell away.

Away from the girls.

Away from my boyfriend's judging eyes.

How dare he read that!

He has no right!

The angrier I get, the faster my momentum takes me. I don't look behind me, just keep pushing and pushing and pushing my legs to get away.

When all air leaves my lungs, I stop to catch my breath. I look around and see a park close by. l put my arms above my head and cross my arms, to catch my breath. I feel my abs clench as I breathe in and out. I quickly deiced to walk over to the park and sit on a swing.

No one is around the park; most kids are probably sleeping in. It's still so damn early…too early for this drama. What happened with just eating breakfast and unpacking?

I gently take out my note from my pocket and smooth out all the creases.

I have not seen this note in a long time. No one, but Jacob, knows that I have this. Not even when the cops came. I've always kept it behind my mother's picture (in the frame) for as long as I can remember.

My vision is blurred as I re-read the note. I haven't seen it in years, but I still know every word.

I don't look up from the note until I hear someone coming close. I just know, in my gut, that my two girls are walking towards me.

Rose leaned in and touched my shoulder affectionately. "Did the run make you feel better?"

I nodded.

"Good. The boys had to hold Edward back from chasing you. I told Emmett to let you run ahead for a while. Get some steam out."

I nodded again and muttered a quick 'thanks'

"I knew something was behind that picture!" Alice yelled.

"Alice…" Rose said in a warning tone.

"No Rose, be quiet." She pointed at me, "I knew you kept something big from us, even though you know every fucking little thing about me. Good or bad, you know." She huffed, "You always kept the picture _so_ close but you NEVER said anything! A suicide note Isabella Swan? Why the hell would you keep that away from us?" Alice yelled.

"Alice, go take a damn walk and cool off," Rose reprimanded and put her hand on her shoulder.

Alice shrugged off her hand. "Fuck that Rose. Bella is wrong here. I'm not letting this go."

I nodded again and looked up at Alice. "Your right, I should have told you two about this note."

Alice folded her arms together and raised an eyebrow, "well?"

"Jeeze Alice. Cut her a break."

"No Rose! This is serious. I'm not gonna act calm about this. Continue Bella."

I just shook my head and handed her the note, "just read it for yourself then. Both of you, please?" I know I should have never kept this from them. I feel so guilty.

Alice grabbed the note and held it close to her and Rose. They both began to read it silently. I watched their faces contort at the same time.

"Oooohh" Alice gasped.

Rose didn't say anything, but I saw her clench her necklace against her neck with her right hand as tears fell from her eyes. When they finished the note, Alice gently handed it back to me.

"I get it." Rose sniffled, "I get why you would keep that from us."

Alice shook her head, "I don't."

Rose sighed. "I'm sorry Alice, but you can't understand."

Alice snapped up and looked at her, "just because I had amnesia when I was little doesn't make me stupid Rose. We tell each other everything. I have no secrets from you two. I thought it went both ways."

I sighed, feeling bad. "It does go both ways Alice. I'm sorry I kept this from you. It's just…this never came up. I don't want to sound bitchy, but this is very very personal."

Alice took a step back and inhaled through her nose. I have never seen her this angry before. "Personal? You want to talk personal to me? You and Rose were the first people I openly talked about James to. The first! I told you how he beat me and called me another girl's name. How confused and scared I was. How much I wondered what I did wrong to deserve that! Hell Bella, I told you everything…willingly! Cause I always thought we were _that_ close. I look at you and Rose like sisters!" She hiccupped as she gained her footing. "I even told you when I lost my virginity…the night it happened! How could you not tell us? ME?"

I shook my head, trying not to break down and cry again. "Alice, I swear I didn't tell anyone. This is a horrible burden I didn't want to infect you girls with."

Alice scoffed, "Really? Well then, does Jacob know? About the note and what it says?"

My heart sank. I put my head down, my eyes welling with tears. I let out a strangled cry as I looked her in the eye and told her the truth, "yes he knows."

Alice nodded, looking so hurt my whole chest hurt. "That's what I thought," she said with a weak voice.

"Alice, chill ok? This is big. Bella, do you wanna talk about this?"

I shook my head and Alice turned and walked away.

Rose leaned down and hugged me. I held her to me tightly, sniffling and squeezing my eyes close. She whispered, "I'm here if you want to talk B."

"Thank you Rose. I just want to be alone for a while."

She nodded in agreement. "I get that, its fine. But can you be alone at home? Your kinda out in the open here and with…you know? All the drama? I don't want you out alone."

"Yeah, I understand. I'll walk with you back."

We made our way back to the house; Alice was way ahead of us.

Rose and I made it back home around noon. There were no cars in the parking space. When we got inside the living room was empty as well as the kitchen. The only sign of life was coming from Alice's room. She was blaring rock music.

Rose put her arm around my shoulder, "Don't worry about Alice, she'll come around. She just needs time to cool off."

I doubt it, I've never seen her so mad. "I messed up big."

"Yes, you did. I told you everything about me too, Bella. Even though we don't talk about the subject of abuse and rape…I still told you what happened to Royce and me." She sighed and took her arm off my shoulder, "You know the whole 'it never came up' or 'it's very personal' is a bullshit excuse. You kept this from us on purpose. And I know the reason Alice got so hurt was because you told Jacob and not her. Not us."

"Look Rose, I-"

She put her hand up in front of me, making me stop talking. "I know. But I can't help but be mad at you too. I just don't want to shut down on you, like how Alice is, but that doesn't mean I'm not mad at you." She took a calming breath and tried to mask the hurt I see in her eye. She shook her head, "look, the boys are gone. I'm going to finish up my room, we'll talk more about this later." She motioned her hand towards herself and me, "when we're not so emotional."

I nodded my head. I understand that she doesn't want to talk to me right now. I rubbed the back of my neck, "I have to clean the glass off the floor from the frame and finish unpacking. I don't have much left over, but I need to finish."

"Okay. Well try to break all your boxes down and leave them in the living room. Emmett said he'll take them to be recycled later."

"Alright." I left her in the living room and made my way upstairs. The music was getting louder as I got closer to my room. I walked down to the end of the hall and looked to my right at Alice's door. I reached over and turned the doorknob and it didn't move. It was locked. She locked me out.

Frowning, I turned to the left and went into my room. I shut my own door behind me, because I didn't want to listen to Alice's loud music. I leaned on my door and looked around my room. I still have a lot left to do. First things first though, I get my note out and look for a new place to put it. I spot my dresser and knew that it would be safe in my underwear drawer…for now. I'll have to get a new frame soon.

I tucked the note in my underwear drawer, along with my mom's picture.

I picked up the glass carefully, so I don't cut myself. I put all the pieces in the trash bin. I looked around and decided I should finish putting up my photos and putting away my clothes.

The rest of the day went by pretty uneventful. I managed to get everything finished and crush all my boxes. My room started looking like _my_ room. I've never had a room to myself; I've always shared with the girls. I even have my Nirvana poster up on my wall by my window.

I thought about the girls all day though. None of them came into my room to see me. Alice pretty much blasted her music all day. It only stopped when Jasper showed up. They have been in her room since, with the door still closed (I heard her slam it shut).

I don't know if Emmett was here, but I haven't heard anything from Rose. I'm hungry, but don't want to leave my room…I'm in a predicament.

I managed to keep myself busy. I finished up my room and took a lot of time writing in my journal Dr. Hall gave me. I basically wrote down everything that happened this morning. I wrote about Edward finding the suicide note and the girls finding out that I had it. I wonder what the Amazonian psychiatrist is gonna say about _all_ this.

When I finished my entry, my stomach gave a mean growl. Hence, my predicament. I peaked my head out my room and into the hallway…all seems clear.

Am I hiding out and ignoring my issues with the people I care about?

Yes, yes I am.

I sneak over quietly towards the stairway and faintly hear classical music coming from the living room. I make it halfway down the stairs when I see Edward. He's sitting on the floor putting together…a coffee table?

I'm still mad at him and I do not want to have 'that' conversation right now. So, I turn around to head back up to my room, hunger be damned.

"Bella?"

I turned around and looked at him nervously. I got caught. "Yes?"

"Why are you going back upstairs? Don't you want something? I mean, you came down…"

I shook my head. "Nope, I'm good."

Edward stood up and stared at me from the bottom of the stairs. He let out an awkward breath and scratched the back of head. "Look Bella, I don't know how to react to this. I…" he voice trailed off.

I know he wants to talk about the note, but I'm not ready to talk about it with him, so I changed to subject. "What are you making?"

"Huh?" he looks behind him, "Oh. It's a coffee table; my dad said you girls can have it. It's old and disassembles pretty easy, but it's good. I'm all finished with it. It's sturdy and all."

I shifted my feet, "that's nice. Tell him we said thanks."

"I will. My mom also wanted me to show you this." He pulled out his iphone (which made the music stop) and started messing with it. He looked up at me, "Um, can you come down and take a look?"

I walked down the stairs and stood right next to him. I automatically was engulfed in his smell. He smelled like cinnamon, axel cologne and something that was all him. It was nice.

He cleared his throat, "It's a furniture set her friend is going to put up on Craig's List. She said she wants to sell it all as one set, not sell it piece by piece. My mom asked her if she could wait to post it and see if you all liked it. I bet we can get a good deal on it." He handed me his phone so I could see a picture of it.

The furniture looks cute. I saw that the two couches and loveseat where both a dark shade of brown. They looked very comfortable and cozy. Those would look really nice in our living room.

"I uh…she said they were hardly used, plus she kept that plastic cover over them. The set is pretty much like new and I think this will be better than you all buying a whole new furniture set…so yeah." Edward finished awkwardly.

"This looks great Edward. I'll have to talk to the girls about it first, but I'm pretty sure we'll get it. Thanks a lot." I smiled at him.

He smiled back, "No problem. It was all my mother's idea. I'll send a text to Jasper and Emmett to show the girls. They're with them right now. See if their interested."

"That's a good idea." I looked up the stairs and wondered what the girls where up to. I glanced back at Edward and he just finished texting his brothers. He looked at me, probably wondering what we should do next. "You hungry? I came down here to make a sandwich. Want one?"

He looked down at me and smiled, "That sound delicious right about now."

We headed to the kitchen and I quickly made my way over to the fridge. I pulled out everything that is needed for our sandwiches and put it on the counter.

"My room is done."

Edward grabbed the bread and the mayo, "that's great. I changed the oil out from my car."

I looked at him and raised my eyebrow. He shrugged, "what? I had nothing else to do and my car needed it. When I finished I went to my dad's office. He told me the boys where already here. That's when he told me about the coffee table and my mom's idea about the furniture. So I grabbed the table from the attic and came here to assemble it."

"Sounds eventful. Your dad not working today?" I handed him the mustard and placed the turkey slices on top of the bread with the mayo on it.

"Yeah. He usually works four days in a row then is off for three. We usually volunteer the days he's there."

"That makes sense." I handed him his sandwich on a paper-towel. I went in the fridge and got us both some bottled water. Looking at the fridge I say, "We need to go grocery shopping again soon."

"I have my car out front, if you want to go?"

I looked over at him and he took a bite of his sandwich. I gave him his water and he muttered thanks while chewing.

"I'll have to go with the girls. To see what they want, plus Rose is the one with the money right now. But…" I sighed, "I don't think they will want to talk to me for a while."

He nodded his head and I took a bite from my sandwich. It's good.

"I'm not happy with you either. I really want to talk about it, but I don't want to piss you off." When I looked up at him he averted his eyes away and took a drink of his water.

I didn't know what to say. I don't want to talk about this at all with him. But we're in a relationship; I have to get use to talking to him about my life.

"Okay. Let's finish our meal and we'll go inside my room. I'll invite the girls, just them, and we'll hash it out."

Edward's face scrunched up a bit. "Why can't my brothers join?"

I put my head down, "This is really hard for me. I barely want to talk about this at all. It's going to be hard just to say anything and I hardly know them. Plus, I know the girls or you will tell them what I say later…which is fine by the way. I just want to tell you three face-to-face."

He reached over and pulled me into a hug. It was a bit awkward cause I still had my sandwich in my hand, but I embraced him anyway. I leaned my head on his shoulder. He hummed against my neck. I looked up at him and he looked down at me. I smiled and puckered my lips. He smiled back and leaned down to kiss me sweetly.

"Promise we'll be okay after all this?" I asked.

He squeezed me tighter, "I promise. I know our past doesn't define us, but it is our past. I need to know about this because I care about you Bella. I love being around you and I want to know what makes you happy or sad."

"I want to know more about you too." I muttered against his shoulder; one arm around his waist and the other on my said trying to keep my sandwich away from his shirt.

"Ha! You'll probably just find out what kind of a nerd I am." He chuckled.

I pulled away from him and looked up, "what?"

He blushed and looked down, "Trust me. On my downtime, I'm just on my computer playing WoW."

I laughed, "What's that?"

He shook his head, "Trust me Bella…you don't want to know about that side of me."

I smiled, "Yes I do."

He feigned a serious face, "No you don't. My brothers make fun of me for it all the time."

I giggled a bit, "Why?"

"Cause they do. Now let's eat."

"Are you ending the discussion Mr. Cullen?" I raised my eyebrow. Even though I know for a fact that I am _soo_ going to get more information about WoW _very_ soon.

"Yes I am." He smirked and let me go. He turned around and grabbed his food. I watched him eat and smiled. He was able to lift up the tension that we were in with just some simple words.

"Want to go on a date with me?" I blurted without thinking.

He choked on him sandwich and he eyes got big. "What?" he coughed.

"I mean, we're in a relationship and I've never been on a read date. Want to go out with me?" I shuffled my feet and looked at how cool my shoes look at the moment.

He took a moment to digest his food and take a deep drink of water. He reached over and put his finger under my chin so I could look up at him. "Bella, of course I want to go on a date with you. A real date. I just saw myself asking you out first is all, you surprised me. But if you want to go out tomorrow, I'll set up a great first date."

I smiled and nodded my head. "It's a date then?"

He chuckled, "It's a date."

We ate quietly until I heard footsteps slamming down the stairs. I looked over the entrance and saw Alice. She still looked extremely angry.

"Bella, I'm tired of waiting for you to approach me to talk about this. So, I'm here to approach you. We are going to talk this out now." She pointed at me, "you, me and Rose. Gonna. Talk. Now." She stated in a firm and cool voice. Jasper came up behind her and rubbed her back. He mumbled something quietly and she nodded her head, but did not break eye contact with me.

I didn't want to start a fight. I planned on taking her and Rose into my room away to talk it out. "And Edward." I explained to her, "I told him I would talk to the three of you in my room. If it _has_ to be now, then lead the way. I'll call Rose."

She put her hand up, "Don't waste our time, I'll call her and we'll meet you in your room with Edward. Don't worry, the boys will leave."

"I didn't say they have to leave Alice, but-"

"I get it," she interrupted. "Edward is okay but not our guys. So stop stalling and let's get this over with." Her voice was shaky and she quickly turned around to leave.

I looked over at Edward, my eyes started watering and my chin started quivering. "She hates me." I crocked through tears.

He brought me to his arms and kissed my temple. "She's just hurt Bella. She loves you and I think we should just get together and hash it all out. Let's get this over with." He sighed and wiped his thumb under my eyes.

I nodded and followed him to the living room. I saw Emmett and Jasper come down the stairs, looking somberly.

I continued crying and feeling so guilty I had to say something to them. "Look guys, I'm so sorry if you feel left out, but you don't have to leave the house. It's just-"

Emmett slowly approached me. He shocked me when he enveloped me in his huge arms. "Shhh, no hard feelings Bella. We don't know each other that well yet. I understand this is hard enough for you without me and Jazz in that room. We're going to go out for a while and I promise we'll bring back buckets of ice-cream."

I laughed and sniffled against his chest. He let me go and I looked over at Japer. He looks so tough and kinda scary, with all his tattoos and faint scars on his face. But his face held nothing but empathy as he too shocked me by hugging me close.

"Alice is just hurt Bella." He whispered in my ear. "I swear it sweetheart, the moment you hug her and say sorry, she'll crumble and lose the angry façade. Cause that's all it is, a façade. She's in pain and needs you as much as I'm sure you need her."

"Thank you." I whispered.

"You're welcome. We'll see ya later."

Edward put his hand on the small of my back as we went upstairs. We faintly heard the door close behind us as we made it to the front of my room. With one be gulp of breath and a reassuring smile from Edward, we walked in.

Rose and Alice were sitting on my bed. Without saying anything, I walked over to my dresser and took out the suicide note.

I cleared my throat and started talking. "I'm going to read this note out loud. Then we'll talk about it:

_To whom it may concern:_

_I feel so weak. So pathetic._

_Fighting a fight I will never win._

_What is one to do but drown in sorrow? _

_Cry until there is no water left. Bleed until dry._

_There is no future, but what waits beyond…_

_Hopefully I'll seep into my deepest delusions, cause that's all I ever look forward to anymore._

_A place of dark tranquility._

_Since reality is just too hard to stand and not worth the effort anymore. _

_One must let the past lie and the future plummet down to an indefinite possibility._

_I was a failed wife and mother. May I rest in hell where I belong?_

_I deserve no better._

_-Rene Irene Swan_

I wiped the tears from my face and continued without pause. "On the back of her note was a poem. I don't know if she meant to have this in her note or if she just simply used this page as a piece of paper to write on. I'll never know. But it says:

_Love is a Flame_

_Love is a flame that burns with sacred fire,_

_And fills the being up with sweet desire;_

_Yet, once the altar feels love's fiery breath,_

_The heart must be crucible till death._

_Say love is life; and say it not amiss,_

_That love is but a synonym for bliss._

_Say what you will of love—in what refrain,_

_But knows the heart, 'tis but a word for pain._

I finished the last line in a whisper. Feeling dizzy, I shakily sit on the floor. I feel Edward behind me and I lean back into him. My sobs wheezed and I clenched my eyes shut.

"I was barely six years old when I found my mother dead in a bathtub. I didn't understand what I was seeing." I sniffled. "The water was red and her arms were cut so deep. I tried to wake her up but her eyes never blinked!" I yelled and pleaded with my eyes for them to understand.

I sat in Indian style on the floor and Edward was rubbing my back. "I knew about death from when she explained it to me when my dad died. So in my heart I knew she was dead. I saw the note on top of the toilet. I don't know why but I picked it up and ran into my room. I hid the note inside a hole in my teddy bear. I never told anyone I had it. I didn't even read it until I was thirteen years old…on her birthday."

I steeled myself. "Well, when I went back to her room…I…um…." I trailed off and my tears flowed more down my face. "I…got in the tub with her."

I heard everyone in the room gasped.

I nodded, "I loved my mommy. I wanted to be with her, go with her wherever she went. I didn't want to be left behind! I stayed in that tub until I was found…by…by…"

I hiccupped and leaned forward til I laid my face on the carpet. I turned my face to the side, feeling Edward's warm hands on my back. I curled in the fetal position and Edward molded his body around me. "I wouldn't get out of the tub. The police were called and they had to pry me away from her cold dead body. I was hysterical."

I looked up at the girls from the floor. They were holding each other and silently crying.

"I went through the process from there. I was questioned over and over again by more shrinks than I can count. I never wanted to talk to them about it. I always had my teddy bear though. And since I had no blood relatives left in my family, they sent me to a foster program. A therapist there was very frank. She told me my mother took a whole bottle of pills and slashed her own wrists. I yelled and had nightmares for years. Soon after that, I was sent to our orphanage."

I laughed a little and looked up at Rose, "Remember? I woke up some nights screaming?"

Rose nodded, "I remembered. But you told us it was for other reasons…" she gave me a pointed look.

I understood. She was talking about _HIM_. "Well, that too. But mostly it was my mom. I always had a reoccurring nightmare that my mom would talk to me while she slit her writs. My dad would be there too with a huge smile on his face and gaping gunshot wound on his forehead. The room would be filled with so much blood and their voices pierced through me. I hate that dream."

Alice looked horrified. "Bella?" she squeaked.

I tapped Edward's hands and got up to my knees. Staying on my knees, I made my way over to the girls. When I got to the edge I rubbed Alice's legs. "I'm so sorry I kept this from you. I love you so much Alice! I swear I do! It's just hard for me to talk about my mom. I loved her and hate her so fucking much." I cried.

Rose got on the ground with me and hugged me from the side. "I love you Bella."

I sobbed. "I love you too Rose. Even though you're only a year older than me, I look up to you like a mom."

Alice nodded her head; I know she feels the same way.

I looked at her pleadingly, holding her face in my hands. "Please forgive me Alice. I don't know what I would ever do without you. I-I-I am so s-so s-sorry." I stuttered.

Alice leaned down and hugged me. "I love you too Bella. Don't you understand that the three of us are really one? That we tell each other our secrets-good or bad- so we can share the weight of it together? I don't want you to suffer like this alone." She whispered in my ear.

I nodded and put one arm around her and the other around Rose.

"She's right Bella, we're in this all together. Us three against the whole crazy world. No matter what, we're permanent." Rose added, obviously hearing what Alice said.

"I know. I swear there's nothing else I'm hiding from you two. I promise."

We held each other. I don't know how long we held each other. I jumped when I heard the doorbell ring.

Edward cleared in throat and wiped his face. "It's um…my brothers. I'll let them in and we'll be in the living room until you all are ready to join us."

I looked over at him sadly. His eyes were red and his hair a mess. He looked at me wantonly. I know he wants to hold me too but understands that I need to be with the girls right now. He simply kissed the palm of his hand and gave me a small smile.

I know we'll talk later. I was thankful he shut the door behind him.

After a while I asked the question I've been wondering about all day, "Are we okay?"

Both girls nodded.

Alice spoke first, "I'm sorry I got so mad at you. I was just hurt. You two are my family, the only one I'll ever know. When you keep things from me I get scared. I never want to lose what we have."

Rose rubbed the back of her head affectingly, "You never will. We're soulmates."

I nodded. "Forever."

Alice sighed and kissed Rose and I on the cheek. "I know we have a lot more to talk about, especially with what you said, but let's settle for a bit. Bring our emotions up again, on a more positive level. Jasper promised to bring back ice-cream. We'll talk about this more again later…without tears." She smiled.

I smiled back, rubbing off my tear soaked face. "I'm all for not crying."

"Gosh, me too." Rose added. "Let's have the boys cheer us up for a bit. Emmett said he was going to bring us his TV and DVD player. We're watching a comedy movie tonight, no more drama."

We all walked over to mine and Alice's bathroom. We all washed our faces and fixed our hair. With one last look in the mirror…we laughed.

"We look horrible!" I yelled.

"Total mess!" Alice added.

"Complete zombies!" Rose snickered. She just spanked Alice and my bottom, "Oh well, our guys know where hott most of the time."

With that we hugged one more time and left to go downstairs. I honestly can say—at that exact at the moment—the world was lifted off my shoulders…for a while at least.

**A/N:** I know this may be hard to read, it was hard to write too (that's probably why it took me so long). The poem is "Love is a Flame" written by George Marion McClellan in 1895. I love this poem and I hope you all enjoyed it.

This is an intense chapter. I'm curious to know what you all think…


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